


Dream a Dream of Me

by jaweezus



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon Divergence - Avengers (2012), Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Polyamory, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Threesome - M/M/M, Trans Character, Trans Male Character, World War II
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-11-19
Packaged: 2019-08-06 18:20:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 32,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16392758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaweezus/pseuds/jaweezus
Summary: Set during/through The First Avenger, then The Avengers, then The Winter Soldier.Lee is a transgender guy who elists into the military at the beginning of WWII. He meets Steve and Bucky, becomes a super-soldier, and watches Bucky die on the train and then Steve die on the plane. He lives his life in SHIELD for 70 years before Steve and then Bucky resurface. Here's the story of how this idiot meets two other idiots and shenangians ensue.





	1. Chapter 1

_A little girl, dark head of hair, walks up to the little boy that lives next door, with soft hair like a rabbit's, light and shiny._

_“Hi what's your name! My names Lisa, I'm four! How old are you? Do you go to school yet? Mami says I can't go to school until next year because I'm too young but I wanna go now! Have you ever read a book?” Lisa chattered along, skipping around and grabbing sticks and rocks with her tiny hands._

_The little boy only shook his head, and stared._

_“You don't talk much, do you?” Lisa stops and stares, and offers a hand full of pebbles._

_“Charles! Dinner!” A man's voice calls from an apartment window, ringing and deep. The little boy turns and hurries to the complex door, looks back once._

_“Bye,” he says softly, timid, and waves once. He runs inside. Lisa stares and screams “BYE!” back, and runs to the same door and opens it. She sees a small figure turn down the left hallway, and she runs to the intersection where all the hallways meet. By the time she gets to the intersection, he's gone, so she turns to the right and goes to her own apartment, where her mother is making dinner._

_“Mami I met a boy and his name is Charles and he didn't talk to me but I was gonna give him these rocks but his papi called him for dinner!”_

_Lisa's mother smiles, and continues stirring the soup she was making at the stove. “Hola mija, that must be Charles Leigh, Raymond's boy. We can invite them to dinner another day, after we get everything unpacked. Okay?” Lisa nodded and sat down in the chair at the table, nose barely reaching the flat top._

°°°

“Charles Gregory Leigh, from Brooklyn, New York, five foot seven, one hundred and sixty five point three pounds, in full health. I'm going to be nice and chop off that point three pounds so that you meet the requirements for the physical, but you better be watching your weight in boot camp. Generals watch those weights like hawks and you'll be booted out the moment you hit one sixty six.” The doctor set his clipboard down and frowned. “But that's the least of your problems. You do know you have to be a _boy_ to be in the troops, correct?”

Lee set his chin up straighter, cropped hair placed neatly to his forehead. “I know sir. I am a boy.”

The doctor chuckled and shook his head, thinking. After a brief pause, he says, "I'm not a snitch, I'm not a tattler that runs to my superiors when someone doesn't meet the requirements. I know your pal Chuckie brought you here because _he_ knows that. I need you to do me a favor, and then I'll pass you and you'll be ready for boot camp.”

Lee looked up at him, waiting, pleading silently.

“Just tell me this: is it worth it? You know you'll be caught eventually. Is it really worth being a man, running straight to your death?” Lee could tell he meant it as gentle as he could, but he took a moment anyways to not sound defensive.

“I’m not worried about dying. I knew I would be dead as a man no matter where I went. If I'm not doing it for my country, then why do it at all?” The doctor pondered this for a moment, and reached for his clipboard. He scribbled a signature and ripped the white copy of the form from the cupboard, then handed Lee the yellow copy underneath.

“Just hang on to this for your records and be here next Monday at 6am sharp. Here's another paper detailing everything you can bring and anything else.” He hands him another yellow paper, and starts to pack up his leather doctor's bag.

“Wait,” the doctor turns back to lee at the doorway. “What's your name?”

The doctor smiles warmly, gentle. “Dr. Abraham Erskine.”

“Well, Dr. Erskine,” Lee smiles back, filled with relief. “Thank you.” The mop of dark hair flops out of the doorway, gone.

Dr. Erskine suppresses a sigh, and goes back to packing up his bag. He takes one last look at the physical evaluation form on the table, and pauses. Back to the bag, he grabs a pen, and adds a note.

“CHARLES LEIGH, ADD AS POSSIBLE CANDIDATE FOR SSR PROJECT SUPER SOLDIER.”

He signs the footnote, signature loopy and swift, and returns his pen to his bag. Leaving the office, he turns the form in to the secretary, to be sent to Colonel Phillips, in boot camp.

 

°°°

Lee opened the door, key jingling, and stepped inside. His tiny apartment, strewn with books and paper everywhere, was quiet and empty. He tossed his papers onto the counter next to a dirty plate, and took a deep breath, walking into his bedroom. He rummaged about, picking up dirty clothes and stray papers. He considered going ahead and packing, but decided to wait until Chuckie was home.

As if on cue, the sound of the front door opening and heavier footsteps approaching filled his ears. Lee walked into the tiny living room to meet Chuckie, yellow paper already in his hands. Chuckie reads the report, coming to the end with Erskine's signature. His face broke out into a glittering smile, cheeks beaming. Lee smiled back, and snapped his fingers.

Chuckie looked up from the paper, still smiling. “You fucking did it. I can't believe you did it.”

“Yeah, well,” Lee shrugs, grinning widely. Chuckie drops the paper back onto the table, and opens his arms. Lee practically runs to him, and wraps his arms around Chuckie's waist. Chuckie chuckles, and hugs him back just as hard. they stay like that for a moment, quiet, comfortable.

“Let's go celebrate, I'll buy you a glass of milk.” Chuckie smirks and ruffles Lee's head, curly locks flopping about.

Lee whacks him on the arm, pushing out of his embrace. “How about instead, you walk to the Recruitment office with me Monday. I want you to see me off, little brother.”

°°°

Lee and Chuckie walk into the corner diner, bell jingling at the door. They sit at the counter and order a cup, blowing warm breaths into their palms.

“Are you ready for this?” Lee takes a sip of coffee, takes a moment to answer.

“I think I am. The worst they could do is throw me in jail. It's now or never.” Chuckie nods, and inhales the steam coming from his own mug, and brings it closer to him for warmth.

They finish their drinks and head back outside. Walking past an alleyway, Lee pauses. Sounds of struggling bodies can be heard, and shouts of anger echo down the narrow passageway. Lee takes off, dodging past trash cans and rubbish piles on the ground, until he sees a small group of 4 men. Two of them are holding down another man--a boy, Lee notices-- while the last kicks him in the stomach repeatedly. The boy looks scrawny, and thin, like he missed a few meals. His blond hair fell into his eyes, which held such a deep look of determination and contempt that Lee knew he had to help him.

“ _HEY! Get off him!_ ” Lee shouts, and takes the last man by surprise with a kick to the ass. The man stumbles forward, and turns to Lee.

“Aw, you looking to join in too little man?” The man sneers, and brings up his fists. Lee smirks, arrogant.

“Fucking creeps, I'd say fight someone your own size, but I guess it's funnier to get your ass kicked by someone smaller, isn't it?” With that, Lee surges forward, fists flying. They scuffle for a moment, and the man punches Lee in the stomach, tossing him to the ground. Lee catches his breath for a moment, and swings back up. He charges again, this time feigning to the right, with the man leaning away. He swerves at the last second and roundhouse-kicks the man on his side, full force, and he collapses. One of the other men grasping the boy let go and charge Lee. He dodges him and goes for the dirty, kicking him hard in the groin. He collapses as well, and Lee turns to the last one holding the boy, but finds him in a chokehold by the boy himself.

“I got him! I got him!” He yells. The choking man sputters, and finally taps out. He lets him go, and he scurries up from the ground and tries to drag his friends away out of the alley. Lee and the boy watch him go. Chuckie strolls up from where he was leaning against a dumpster.

“Nice of you to help, pansy.” Chuckie scoffs and rolls his eyes.

“As if you needed my help.” Lee rolls his eyes back and turns to the boy.

“Are you hurt? We can get you to a hospital if you need it.” The boy shakes his head and winces. There's a cut on his lip and a red mark on his neck, the beginnings of a bruise.

“I'm fine, I have a thing to get to anyways. I'm Steve, Steve Rogers.” He holds out a hand, and Lee shakes it firmly.

“People call me Lee. This is Chuckie, my brother.” Steve nods at him, and dusts himself off, his dark green pants a little dirty from the fight. “Wait, that's a uniform like mine! Are you going to bootcamp today?” Steve nods, beaming. “Me too! Well at least I'll have a new friend there! Come on, you can walk with us.” Steve nods again and they set off down the alley. At the end of the alley, another figure runs by, pauses, and runs back to the alley.

“STEVEN GRANT ROGERS.” Steve turns red at his name being yelled and looks sheepish as the taller man runs up to him and inspects his dirty uniform and the cut on his lip. “You fucking idiot, what did I tell you about getting into fights! They can wait until after bootcamp!” Steve shrugged and looked even more sheepish as his friend reprimanded him. “Well, aren't you going to introduce me to your new friends?” Bucky places his hands on his hips.

“Buck, this is Lee and Chuckie. Guys, this is my best friend Bucky.” Lee looked him over once, and tried not to get lost in his eyes. Fuck. He was gorgeous. Lee nodded once, and Chuckie said a quiet hello. “Lee helped me… uh…”

“We kicked their asses.” Lee chirped, and winked at Steve. Steve blushed, looked away, then nodded. “And now we're going bootcamp together!” Bucky grinned at Lee and clapped Steve on the shoulder, leading him out the alley, into the street. Lee and Chuckie followed close behind.

“Thank God you made a friend on the inside so I don't have to abandon my post to save your ass once you get yourself in trouble somehow. You know I'd do it too, and then I'd never hear the end of it!” Steve rolled his eyes, but gave Bucky a look of endearment. Lee smiled and trailed close behind, listening to Bucky's chattering, until they stopped at the office Lee went to last week for his physical. “Alright, guys. This is where we stop. You better behave, punk, or you know what I'll do.” Steve rolled his eyes again and huffed, wrapping his arms around Bucky's waist.

“Bye, jerk. See you at the front lines.” Bucky hugged him back, and tousled his hair, earning a shout of annoyance from Steve. Lee turned to Chuckie, feeling a little lost.

“You heard 'em, Lee. Stay out of trouble or else, kid.”

“Chuckie I'm the older brother, I should be calling you kid. Kid.” Chuckie laughed and ruffled his hair, same as Bucky, and sighed. He pulled Lee into an embrace, chin on Lee's head.

“I'll miss you, idiot.” Lee sighed too, and hugged him tighter. “You're my brother now, but I'll always remember my favorite sister. Just… be careful, okay?” He whispered, tone switching from playful to serious. Lee nodded, throat tight. They broke the embrace, and just kept eye contact, speaking silent words of encouragement and support. Lee finally turned to Steve, who was waiting a small distance away with Bucky, giving them privacy.

“I'm ready guys. Let's go, Steve.” With that, they walk into the office together, and Bucky and Chuckie give each other a look of resignation, and part ways.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve and Lee train. Lee is snoopy.

Lee's breath came out in clouds, wheezing through his footfalls. The three-mile run had just started and the group of men trudged on, packs bouncing full of rocks to simulate supplies. Lee was only near the back of the group, and continually wiped his face from the flying mud of the others footfalls. Steve wasn't doing much better, his asthmatic wheezes loud in the morning air. His pack weighed him down heavier than the others, his small frame sinking into the mud.

Lee looked back to see Steve collapse, and skidded in his steps and ran back to where he was, a few yards away. He grabbed his arm and tried to lift him up, but the heavy pack was messing with his balance. Steve grabbed his arm to try to lift up as well, but they both skidded in the mud and fell back to the ground.

“ROGERS, LEIGH, FRONT AND CENTER.” Colonel Phillips, a stout older man in army fatigues stood off to the side with Agent Peggy Carter. She stared them down, eyes strong and proud.

“Yes sir.” Steve and Lee saluted and stood up straight in a line, shoes sinking into the muddy patches in front of their superiors. Phillips glared at the two, and spat out a curt “at ease,” then glanced at the clipboard in his hand.

“I expect you to fail. Stop meeting my expectations.” Phillips turned and began to walk away, but Agent Carter didn't move. She looked down at the two soldiers, still panting from the run.

“Gentlemen, while our Colonel here expects failure, I expect greatness. I believe in you two. It's commendable that you tried to help your comrade, Mr. Leigh, and I thank you for that. However, in these types of trainings, it's better to try to make yourself get farther, rather than losing by trying to pick up someone else's slack. Try to remember that before helping yourself and Mr. Rogers here to fail. Dismissed.” Agent Carter turned on her heel and headed off, most likely to where Phillips walked away.

Lee and Steve looked at each other, then visibly relaxed. “She terrifies me.” Lee remarked, turning towards the barracks where the other soldiers began to head towards, their run finished. “It's like she has eyes that glare into my soul.”

Steve shook his head, a dazed look on his face as he followed Lee to the barracks. “Nah, she's breathtaking. Remember when she punched McGregors in the face?” Lee laughed out loud, seeing his face in his head, smirking, then contorted in pain after Agent Carter nearly broke his nose.

“That was fucking hilarious. You know how hard it was to keep myself from cackling?”

“Yeah, me too. He deserved it, talking to her like that.”

They entered the barracks, men milling about, grabbing piles of clothes, lounging on their bunks, reading magazines. Lee strode over to his bunk, grabbing his pair of spare clothes he laid out for after training for the day. Steve walked over to his bunk and did the same respectively, and headed to the showers. Lee watched him go, then headed the opposite direction, to the labs.

°°°

Erskine opened the door for him, after a quiet knock, greeting with “hello, Lee! You're looking quite dirty today.”

“Yeah, I know. Me and Steve fell in the mud.” He walked over to a small enclosed area, filled with four showers. Grabbing a towel off the rack nearby, he walked into a stall, and stripped himself of his clothes.

Cold water always gave Lee a wariness to showers, but he welcomed the cold as he slowly eased himself under the spray. His overheated body felt relief as he scrubbed the dirt and mud from training, and he let his mind relax.

°°°

“So where do you always go after training?” Asked Steve, munching on a cracker, lounging on the bench across from Lee. Dinner consisted of a weak stew, with few carrots and potatoes rationed into a bowl of broth and lumps of meat.

Lee spooned the broth into his mouth, and bit into a stale cracker before answering. “Oh, I have a uh…. medical condition, so I take my showers in the lab where I'm not exposing anything to anyone else.” Erskine had repeated this mantra to Lee, the first day of boot camp, after Lee had realized the barracks had communal showers. Erskine gave him special access to the labs for only that, and Lee was grateful. It saved his cover from the get-go. He reminded himself how lucky he was to have someone like Erskine in a position to help.

Steve nodded, and took another bite of cracker. “....So…. what's wrong with you then? Measles?”

“Wouldn't you like to know, Stevie.” Steve turned red and sputtered, squeaking out his embarrassed disagreements. Lee smirked and returned to his broth. “Besides,” he drawled, “it's contagious.”

“What’s contagious? Is there something we should know about, Mr. Leigh?” A woman's voice rang through the air. Lee turned and all the blood drained out of his face, only one thought in his head: _oh fuck_.

“Uh, no, Agent Carter, it's nothing. Lee was just making a… joke.” Steve saved him, blushing harder. Agent Carter stared him down before relaxing, and walking away.

Steve exhaled the breath he was holding, and turned to Lee. “Wonder what that was about.”

“I dunno, but I'm telling you she must be watching me like a hawk. Where did she even come from?”

“I didn't even see her behind you. I think I'm getting why you think she's scary.” Lee turned back to his stew, scooping the rest of the potatoes into his mouth, before getting up and walking to the kitchen area to drop off his plate. Steve did the same, trailing behind him quietly.

Lee headed to the barracks, the tiredness settling into his bones. He crawled into his bunk and drifted off, mumbling a goodnight to Steve, who had been skimming a novel in his own bunk nearby.

°°°

A few weeks later, Lee is showering in Erskine's lab when Colonel Phillips and his team decide to visit. His voice rings out through the lab, and Lee recognizes it, panicking. He turns, facing the wall, hoping he isn't recognized.

“Colonel! So nice of you to visit. What fan I do for you today?” Erskine's voice is calm, hiding the underlying panic in himself. Phillips looks around, and takes a seat at a table, nearest to the lab tables.

“Update on the Serum.” Erskine moves about, grabs a few stacks of papers, and joins Phillips at the table. He hands him the stacks for him to browse.

“Very well! I'd say we have about a week or so before it's ready. Are our potential subjects doing well?” Phillips scoffs and sets the papers down.

“Well? Hell no! They're awful. Surely we could use some other soldiers? Like McGregors, he's fit, plus he's passed all the training exercises from day one. Why do we need two shrimps for this?” Erskine shook his head, disappointed.

“I'm telling you, I'm not looking for a soldier that's already put together! I chose those two because they're 'shrimps’. The Serum will fix that! What I need to know is: are they ready?”

Agent Carter stepped forward from the group of men waiting behind Phillips. “Actually, sir, if I may interject. I think they are ready. Just last week Rogers successfully passed the flagpole challenge, and Leigh passed the three-mile run challenge. Both of them had been struggling before with all of the challenges, and both have shown great improvement.”

Erskine nodded at this, and turned back to Phillips. “Well? Does that sound ready to you?” Phillips flipped his hands up, exasperated.

“Fine, fine. You want shrimps for super soldiers? I'll give them. They're ready, you'll have my written approval by Friday.” Phillips raised himself out of the chair and strode away, the group of authorities in his wake. Agent Carter gave Erskine one last look of satisfaction, and followed.

Erskine watched them go, waiting until the doors closed with a click. He turned towards the showers, where Lee peeked from a stall, wide-eyed. “So you heard that whole thing, didn't you?” Lee nodded, still in shock. “I'm not even allowed to explain, let alone have you in here--” Lee cut him off, shock gone.

“Will it fix me?”

“Well, in my opinion you don't need fixing, you're _you_ \--”

“You know what I meant.”

“....Possibly. I don't know. It could enhance the… features… you don't want to be seen, as well. It could go either way.” Lee nodded again, and turned back into the stall. After a moment, he spoke.

“What about Steve?”

“What about him? He's not like you.”

“No, I mean…. Will it help him? With his issues?”

“It could go either way with him as well. But you understand why I chose you.”

“I do.”

“Then you understand why I now must ask you not to say a word of this to Steve. I have to officially tell him, to get his consent. I don't need a biased opinion or premeditated persuasion from you that forces him into this. He needs to decide on his own. You as well, I need you to make an unbiased decision on this. Don't do it for you. Remember this is for the military, for the war.” Lee closed his eyes, shut the water off. He opened them again, and looked down. Looked at what his body was made of, all the flaws, all of that skin that he didn't want.

He turned to the towels, and grabbed one. Dried himself off. Dressed into his clean clothes. He walked to where Erskine stood, going over paperwork, silent. Erskine turned and opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by arms wrapping around his midsection.

The hug was brief and warm, but he welcomed it anyway. He almost didn't hear the quiet “thank you” before Lee was out of the lab, door swinging slowly back to the frame.

°°°

Lee was quiet, picking at his limp grey veggies, as Steve chattered along about the novel he'd been reading. Lee listened quietly, and have him nods where he needed to, but he didn't comment.

Finally Steve paused from his monologue and threw a stale cracker at him. “What's your problem, bed bugs find your bunk?” Lee shook his head, giving Steve a small smile.

“Nah, just thinking about things. Nothing too important.”

“I'll say. You're in your own head, not me. Say, have you gotten any letters from your brother? Or your ma?” Lee shook his head again, frown etched on his face.

“My madre's dead, only my stepdad and Chuckie now. I haven't heard from them though, it must be busy at home.” Steve agreed, then turned to his own plate of boiled veggies.

“Me too. Ma died of influenza, and I moved in with Bucky after that. Surprised I didn't die too, with how weak my immune system is.” Steve turned to Lee, soft celery in his mouth, “You know, you've never told me much about your life back in Brooklyn.”

Lee sighed, ran a hand through his hair. “Well, my mother was born in Mexico, near Mexico City. She came to America when she was eighteen, got a visa, began working her way through the States. Back then it was easy, as long as you were willing to work in the fields. She met my dad, a white man, in Virginia. They fell in love, they moved to New York and eloped, then had me. Papa died of smallpox. I don't remember him. We moved into a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, I met Chuckie, my mama met his dad Raymond, they got married, and that's how it's always been.”

“So you and Chuckie aren't brothers?”

“No, me and Chuckie are stepbrothers, but we'll always consider us blood. He's an idiot without me. Probably why he hasn't written.”

“Ah, I see. What about your stepdad? You think he sent letters?” Lee thought about it for a moment.

“I don't think so. He didn't want me to go.” Lee remembered the conversation clearly.

_“You're what!” The angry yell snapped through him, disappointed. Lee stood tall and raised his chin higher._

_“That's right, I'm enlisting.”_

_“No, no, no. I'm not losing you too. We just lost your mother, I'm not losing my stepdaughter to those German freaks!” Lee winced at the 'stepdaughter’ part, but Raymond didn't notice. He never noticed._

_“It's too late, I've already been approved. I leave Monday.”_

_“No. You leave now. Get out, I'd rather lose you now than lose you then. Out!” Raymond shoved Lee towards the door. Lee resisted at first, before giving up and walking out. Chuckie left the house a moment later, sadness in his shoulders._

_“Well,” he said, “at least you didn't tell him you're going into the troops.”_

Lee sighed, lungs filling with air, then exhaling smoothly out of his mouth. It hurt to think about, but he was glad he didn't say anything detailed about his enlistment. It was better this way, the less people knew, the better.

°°°

Steve picked up the pen, and scribbled his signature onto the consent form for the experiment. Erskine smiled, satisfaction on his face.

Lee had signed the form a few hours before, his decision obvious no matter the bias.

The two were moved into the lab's building, lab shut off from anyone but the scientists working. Even Lee couldn't shower there, but rather had to use a private shower in the bunk areas of the lab's quarters.

Steve and Lee were given a shared room, bunk beds stacked and two small chairs next to a tiny table. Steve laid on the bottom bunk, rereading his novel, while Lee laid on the top bunk, staring at the ceiling.

They both hear a knock on the door, and sit up. Lee jumps down from the bunk and opens the door, cautious. Erskine greets them, a bottle of scnapps in one hand, and three glasses balanced in the other.

“May I?” Lee opens the door wider and lets him in. “Can’t sleep?”

“We've got the jitters, I guess.” Erskine laughs.

“Me too.” He takes a seat at the tiny table, and Lee takes the other seat. Steve adjusts to the end of the bed, sitting up near the table.

“Can I ask you a question?” Steve asks. Lee stays silent, watching.

“Just one?”

“Why me?” Erskine smiles, warm.

“I suppose that is the only question that matters.” He looks down at the bottle of schnapps he brought with him. “This is from Augsburg. My city. So many people forget that the first country that the Nazi’s invaded was their own. You know, after the last war the… my people struggled. They… they felt weak. They felt small. And then Hitler comes along with the marching and the big show and the flags and the… and the…” He waves his hand. “And he… he hears of me, my work and he finds me. And he says, 'You.’ He says, ‘You will make us strong.’ Well, I am not interested. So he sends the head of HYDRA, his research division. A brilliant scientist by the name of Johann Schmidt.

Now, Schmidt is a member of the inner circle and he’s ambitious. He and Hitler share a passion for occult power and Teutonic myth. Hitler uses his fantasies to inspire his followers. But for Schmidt, it is not fantasy. For him, it is real. He has become convinced that there is a great power hidden in the earth, left here by the Gods, waiting to be seized by a superior man. So when he hears about my formula and what it can do, he cannot resist. Schmidt must become that superior man.”

Lee speaks this time. “Did it make him stronger?”

“Yeah. But, there were other effects. The serum was not ready. But more important, the man. The serum amplifies everything that is inside. So, good becomes great. Bad becomes worse. This is why you were chosen. Because a strong man, who has known power all his life, will lose respect for that power. But a weak man knows the value of strength, and knows compassion.”

Steve thought for a moment. “Thanks. I think.”

Erskine pours out three drinks, and Lee passes one to Steve. “Whatever happens tomorrow, you must promise me one thing. That you will stay who you are. Not a perfect soldier, but a good man. Both of you.”

Steve and Lee hold up their glasses to toast. “To the little guys,” Steve toasts. Just as Steve’s about to drink from his glass, Erskine stops him.

“No! No! Wait! Wait! What I am doing? No! You have a procedure tomorrow. No fluids.” He grabs the two glasses, and pours the contents of their glasses into his own. Steve chuckles.

“All right. We’ll drink it after.”

“No! I don’t have procedure tomorrow. Drink it after? Drink it now!” Erskine downs his full glass like a shot, and Lee laughs. Steve joins in, shoulders heaving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so that last bit was from the movie. I felt like it fit the best, rather than me making it up. 
> 
> anyways, new chapter! please tell me what you think!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> steve gets beefy. lee gets anxiety. oh, he gets beefy too.

When Lee woke up the next morning, Steve was nowhere in sight. His bedclothes were folded neatly on his already-made bed, and the room was silent. Lee decided to follow suit, and he poked his head out the door, searching. He walked into the corridor, and decided to head to the lab to see if that was where everyone went. He knocked on the door, waiting. Erskine’s gray hair appeared in the tiny window, and he opened the door for Lee. Lee entered the hallway to the lab, Steve still nowhere in sight.

“So, change of plans, sort of,” Erskine rushed out as he led Lee to the main lab. The lab had changed overnight, the experiment tables missing and a huge tube-like chamber in its place. “Steve is doing his procedure in Brooklyn, where a separate chamber is waiting for him. We’re going to do his procedure first, and then we’re coming back here to do yours. Does that sound alright?”

“Shouldn’t I be there to watch?”

“Actually, you will be there. You’re coming to the lab with me. Steve already went with Agent Carter.”

 _Hoo boy,_ thought Lee, _I’m sure she terrified him._ He followed Erskine out the back door, where a dark vehicle was waiting for them.

 

०००

 

Brooklyn hadn’t changed in the few weeks Lee had been gone, but it was still a sight to watch as they drove through the streets to the other lab. People milled about, headed to their jobs, running errands, children playing in the alleys. The car didn’t stop until it pulled up to an inconspicuous-looking antiques shop. Lee got out of the car and followed Erskine inside, coughing a little at the dust inside. Knick-knacks and baubles were strewn about, and Lee was getting more confused by the second until Erskine and the guard that was behind him stopped at a back door.

“Wonderful weather this morning, isn’t it?” Said the shop owner settled at the counter.

“Yes, but I always carry an umbrella,” Erskine quipped, opening the door to the back room. Lee looked down at Erskine’s hands, and realized he didn’t have an umbrella. The back room led to a quaint little break room, and an old, rustic elevator with a keypad. They stopped at the elevator and the guard punched in a code in the keypad. The doors opened, and they stepped inside.

 

०००

 

The lab was in the basement, a similar setup to the base’s lab, the same cylindrical chamber settled in the dead center of the area, scientists and technicians milling about. Lee finally spotted Steve, at the bottom, speaking to Agent Carter, and felt a little relief.

Erskine made his way to them, and Lee followed.

 **“** Good morning!” He shakes Steve’s hand and somebody takes a photograph. “Please, no photos right now. Are you ready?” Steve nods, determination set in his eyes. “Take off your shirt, your tie and your hat.”

Steve did just that, and handed them to Lee. Lee gave him an encouraging smile, and took a breath of his own to calm his nerves. Another man, dark haired and mustachioed, walked up to Lee.

“Howard Stark. You are?” Lee remembered to state his brother’s full name, he still hasn’t gotten used to using it as his own.

“Charles Leigh, but call me Lee.” Howard nodded, and smiled.

“So you’re the other test subject. Nice to finally meet you. Abraham here has been telling me a lot about you. And Steve, of course,” he continued. “If this goes right, you two will be marvels to the country, hell, to the world!” He turned to Steve and Agent Carter. “Shall we, Steve?”

Howard led Steve to the chamber--pod, Lee heard someone call it-- and helped him step up into it. The entire thing dwarfed Steve, who was already tiny. Erskine stepped up to the pod.

 **“** Comfortable?” He asked.

Steve shrugged. “It’s a little big. You save me any of that schnapps?”

Erskine chuckled at him. “Not as much as I should have. Sorry. Next time.” He turns to Howard, who is manning the control panel. “Mr. Stark, how are your levels?”

“Levels at one hundred percent.”

“Good.” Howard continues, smirking.

“We may dim half the lights in Brooklyn, but we are ready as we’ll ever be.”

Erskine turns to Agent Carter and Lee. “Agent Carter? Lee? Don’t you think you would be more comfortable in the booth?”

“Oh, yes. Of course. Sorry.” Lee leads Agent Carter to the booth at the beginning of the room, where they had first entered. A group of officials, photographers, and Colonel Phillips were gathered in the wide booth, watching through the windows facing the pod.

“Good.” He takes out a microphone from his pocket and taps it. “Do you hear me? Is this on? Ladies and gentlemen, today we take not another step towards annihilation, but the first step on the path to peace. We begin with a series of micro injections into the subjects major muscle groups. The serum infusion will cause immediate cellular change. And then to stimulate growth, the subject will be saturated with Vita-Rays.”

A scientist brought up a syringe filled with a clear liquid, and injected it into Steve’s bicep. Steve winced, then relaxed. “That wasn’t so bad.”

Erskine smiled gently to Steve. “That was penicillin. Be ready, here we go.” He raised his voice and turned to the others. “Serum infusion beginning in five, four, three, two, one.”

The serum is injected into Steve, who makes a face, but seems otherwise fine.

“Now, Mr. Stark.” Howard lowers a lever at the control panel, and the pod moves upright and encloses Steve inside. Erskine knocks on the pod. “Steven, can you hear me?”

Steve’s voice calls out, a little unsteady. “It’s probably too late to go to the bathroom, right?” Lee rolls his eyes.

Erskine turns back to Howard. “We will proceed.”

Howard continues watching the dials on his panels. “That’s ten percent. Twenty percent. Thirty. That’s forty percent.”

Another scientist speaks up. “Vital signs are normal.”

Howard continues. “That’s fifty percent. Sixty. Seventy.” A pained noise sounds from the pod, then breaks into full on screaming. Lee’s breath catches, and all he can do is stand and watch.

Erskine yells out in alarm. “Steven!” Peggy turns to the officials next to them, alarm in her voice.

“Shut it down.”

Erskine rushes to the pod. “Steven!” He starts banging on the pod, panic in his voice.

Agent Carter’s voice is more panicked now. _“Shut it down!”_

Erskine frantically turns to Howard, “kill the reactor, Mr. Stark! Turn it off! Kill it! Kill the reactor!” Lee is frozen in shock, his brain can’t seem to process what’s going on, Steve’s in there, _Steve’s in there--_

“No! Don’t! I can do this!” Steve’s voice screams from the pod. Howard turns back to the panel.

“Eighty. Ninety. That’s one hundred percent.” The dials all move to the maximum level, before powering down, overloaded. Howard turns away from the panels and walks up to the pod. He grabs the door handle before turning to Erskine, expression unreadable.

Erskine gestures for him to continue. “Mr. Stark?” Howard opens the pod, Lee can’t seem to breathe, Agent Carter is silent and stoic next to him.

The door opens.

“Steven. _Steven_.” Steve opens his eyes, and everything is much lower than it was when he climbed into the pod at the beginning. Colonel Phillips let go of the breath he was holding, and wiped a hand at his face.

“The son of a bitch did it.” The group piled out of the booth, and gathered at the bottom of the pod, surrounding Steve and Erskine.

Steve stumbles out of the pod, supported by Howard and Erskine. “I did it.”

Erskine chuckled and patted his shoulder. “Yeah, yeah. I think we did it.”

Howard is beaming, ecstatic. “We actually did it.”

Agent Carter turned to Steve, who was now much taller than her, and beefy. He was fucking _huge_ , Lee noted. “How do you feel?”

“Taller.” He took a breath, chest rising, and didn’t feel the same _at all._ His breath was clear and his sinuses were clear and-- he smelt perfume? He can smell! He looked around, and his sight was sharp and clear. Lee whistled, and he turned bright red, which earned a wicked grin back from Lee.

“You look taller,” remarked Lee, and gave his bicep a squeeze. Steve squirmed out of his grasp.

Colonel Phillips turned to another official, standing next to him. “How do you like Brooklyn now, Senator?”

“I can think of some folks in Berlin who are about to get very nervous. Congratulations, Doctor.” He turns and shakes hands with Erskine. Erskine beams, and shakes his hand enthusiastically.

“Thank you, sir.” He turns to Lee. “Well, I think it’s better to go ahead and use the resources we have here for our second test. Are you ready, Lee?” Lee’s face pales as more than five faces turn to him.

“Uh…. right. Of course. Let’s do this.” Erskine leads him to the pod, and instructs Howard to begin preparation for the second experiment.

“Alright, take your tie off, belt, and your shoes. We’ll keep the shirt on for now.” He winked at Lee, privately, and Lee did so. He helped him climb into the chamber, which was warm from Steve’s body heat. The metal steamed at Lee’s touch cold, a sharp contrast to the actual padding that Steve had been laying on. He settled himself in, and a technician strapped him in, leaving the straps snug, but not too tight. He focused on his breathing, nervous. Erskine leaned back into the pod, and met eyes with Lee. “Remember, this is make or break. It all ends or begins here, for you. You’ve got this.” Lee nodded, and leaned back against the cushions attached to the pod. He closed his eyes, breath in, breath out.

Erskine’s voice sounded from outside the open pod. “I need everyone back into the booth. Steve, you too this time.” He turned to Lee. “A technician is now going to inject the penicillin.” Lee opened his eyes, and a technician lifted up his sleeve, and injected the liquid. Lee didn’t move, he felt frozen again, like it wasn’t even happening to him, he was detached. It was like he was floating outside the pod, watching from outside his body. Erskine was calm, and locked eyes with Lee, who was still frozen, numb. He nodded, and opened his mouth.

“The serum will now be injected into Test Subject Number Two, in three, two, one.” Another technician, the same as the one who injected Steve, stepped forward. Lee closed his eyes, again, and waited for the injection. The sting in his arm was quick, and he could feel the liquid going into his arm. It was ice-cold, and burned. The door was closed, the latch clicking in place. This is it.

A muffled voice began to speak. Erskine. “Once again, Mr. Stark.” A whirring noise made Lee’s eyes open, and he turned his head towards the sound. A light began pulsating inside the pod, and Lee’s breath began to pick up. He closed his eyes again, and tried to regulate his breathing. He counted to ten, slowly, focusing on each number. He focused hard, then opened his eyes again after hearing Howard’s voice.

“...Forty percent. Fifty. Sixty. Coming up to seventy.” The burning he first felt when the serum was injected began to spread through his body, settling into his arms, his legs, and got worse in his torso. It burned, white-hot, in his chest, and it felt like the peak of the fire was in his heart, his lungs, it was so hot, Lee couldn’t take it, he’s never felt this kind of pain, this isn’t how he wanted to die, it’s too much-- “Ninety…. Almost to one hundred.” He could hear a keening sound, it hurt his ears, as if he couldn’t hurt more, he realized it was his voice, he’s screaming, throat raw, burning… and it stopped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> third chapter bitches
> 
> comment subscribe kudos!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve is an idiot. Lee's an idiot too but he's following Steve, so they're hopeless.

He couldn’t hear anything, couldn’t see. The door opened, the colder air of the outside steaming on his overheated skin, felt freezing compared to the heat he had just felt. His eyes opened, and he squinted. Everything's clearer, more defined. Focused. He blinked and rubbed a hand against his face. He felt feverish, everything around him was cold and his body was too hot, overheated. He was taller, too, everything smaller than he remembered. He looked lower, and Erskine and Howard were standing at the foot of the pod, concern on their face.

“How do you feel?” Erskine asked, unstrapping the straps and helping him out.

“Well,” Lee said, voice hoarse, but strangely deeper, “I get why Steve feels taller.”

Cheers broke out as the group of officials and Steve crowded back to the bottom area. Lee ignored the small crowd and instead focused on his own body. He felt leaner, less soft. He mentally braced himself, and looked down. Where he expected breasts, he found flat chest. He looked at his hands, his arms. They were bigger, more muscled, but not as much as Steve. He flexed carefully, noticing the way his muscles moved. It all felt so … different. But the same, it's still him. It's still _Lee_.

Lee was too busy focusing on his own body that he didn't notice the body standing in front of him. He looked up, and Steve's new bulky body looked back. Steve looked into his eyes, searching for any signs of anything wrong, and was met with absolute joy in Lee's face. Lee broke into a huge smile, and Steve wrapped him into a brief, but extremely warm, embrace.

“We did it Steve,” he whispered into his shoulder. “We fucking did it.”

“I know,” he whispered back, “our beginning starts today.” Steve couldn't see Lee's cheeks heat up at 'our beginning.’ _And it really was_ , he thought. _It's our beginning._

 

°°°

 

A few more tests between Steve and Lee and the entire official procedure was almost done. Erskine took one more blood sample from Steve, and decided to call it a night. Lee helped him pack up the samples carefully into suitcases that were padded heavily with foam. Steve grabbed two suitcases, tucked one under his arm, and then was reaching for the third when he noticed a weird beeping sound. He couldn't quite place it. He turned to Lee, who looked confused, as if he heard it too, and opened his mouth to say something, before the entire room exploded.

Lee's ears rang, and he felt something hot pouring out of them, possibly blood. He couldn't see. from the smoke, and he was laying flat on his back, against some debris, possibly the wall. He sat up slowly, and looked around. Steve was already standing, staggering to Erskine, who was near Lee. Lee looks around, and spots another man grabbing the suitcases.

“Steve, wait!” Lee points to the man, who points his pistol at Erskine, shoots, and takes off running. Steve swivels and begins chasing after the man with the suitcases. Agent Carter, coming out of seemingly nowhere in the smoke, takes off running after him as well, jumping over rubble and flying through the debris.

Lee crawls over to Erskine, who points at his chest, and tries to draw a breath. He pulls in one shuddering breath, and goes limp. Lee checks his pulse, to no avail. He's gone. Lee looks back at the rubble, and begins searching for survivors, anyone who could be under the shattered bricks and concrete. He finds two scientists, and eventually Howard,  who was stuck under the pod's mass of destroyed metal.

“Where's Abraham?” He asks, still disoriented. Lee shakes his head, and turns to Erskine's limp body a distance away. Howard shakes his head and puts his head in his hands.

 

°°°

 

After Steve returns empty-handed, Lee and Steve are bustled into a waiting taxi, and are driven back to the base. The drive is silent, and Lee can't stop looking at his hands. He sees Erskine's face, watches the life leave his eyes, over and over again. He didn't feel tired, didn't feel anything. He just felt warm. He glanced over at Steve, whose face was blank, deep in thought. He had the urge to grab his hand, to give him a hug, to do _something,_ anything to help them both. He hadn't had a chance to really study what changed in Steve, let alone truly see himself, so he just watched. Sure, he muscled up, but something else was different. His jawline wasn't so thin, it wasn't malnourished the way it used to be. His neck matched his head, finally, his body in better proportion than when he was so skinny. Steve looked up, locked eyes with Lee. He gave him a small smile, reassuring, _I'm okay, it's okay._

 

°°°

 

Back at the lab, scientists took samples, again, from Steve and Lee, and Lee's arm was finally starting to feel the effects of all that blood being removed from his system. Steve must have been feeling the same way, because he remarked, “Think you got enough?”

Agent Carter, standing nearby, answered. “Any hope of reproducing a program is locked in your genetic code. But without Dr. Erskine, it could take years.”

Steve looked distraught. “He deserved more than this.”

Agent Carter smiled, gentle. “If it could only work once, er, well, twice, he’d be proud it was you two.”

Colonel Phillips entered the lab, holding a dossier. He handed it to Agent Carter, who opens the folder and begins to read.

“Spoke to the president this morning. As of today the SSR is being retasked.” Agent Carter stopped reading, and looked up at Phillips, concerned.

“Colonel?”

“We are taking the fight to HYDRA. Pack your bags Agent Carter. You too, Stark. You’re flying to London tonight.”

Steve spoke up. “Sir, if you’re going after Schmidt, I want in.” Lee voiced his agreement.

Phillips shook his head. “You’re an experiment. You’re going to Alamogordo.”

Lee spoke up this time. “The serum worked!”

Phillips shook his head again, frustrated. “ I asked for an army and all I got was you. You two, are not enough.” With that, he turned on his heel, and left.

 

°°°

 

Italy, November 1943, 5 miles from the front.

 

Lee watches as the crowd of soldiers heckled Steve and made fun of him. He stayed silent until one of them decided to turn around and pull his pants down, but a hand on his arm made him stop. Agent Carter stood next to Lee, who had begun to sport a mustache from the months on tour with the musical number.

“Nice to finally see you again, Mr. Leigh.”

“You as well, Agent. Are you here to watch Steve be booed off stage?”

Agent Carter chuckled, shaking her head. “Call me Peggy. And no, quite the opposite. I've heard he puts up quite a show.” Lee turned red in the cheeks, but Agent- er, Peggy, didn't seem to notice. Steve finally walked off stage, and Lee left the crowd with Peggy in tow behind him. “So what have you been doing while Steve takes the spotlight?” She asked, trailing behind Lee as he headed towards backstage.

“Well, I'm sort of his guard, in official terms. Unofficially, though, I keep him from getting into trouble. Idiot always has to start something.”  They walk into a tented area behind the stage, where showgirls decked in red, white, and blue are getting ready for their dance. Lee turns a corner, and finds Steve pacing angrily just outside the tent area.

Peggy opens her mouth. “Hello, Steve.”

Steve turns and looks up at Peggy, pacing forgotten. “Hi.” _Wow, Shakespeare,_ thought Lee, and he suppressed the urge to roll his eyes.

“Hi."

“What are you doin’ here?” Lee took that pause to leave, giving them privacy. He knew Steve was going to tell him what she said anyways, as all he every talked about was Peggy this, Peggy that, when they have free time. He didn't mind, but it got repetitive after a while.

Steve’s voice got louder in shock, and Lee heard the change in tone immediately. “The-oh-seventh?” Lee walked back to where they were standing, concerned.

Peggy looked at him quizzically. “What?”

Steve turned and started running in the direction of another tent. “ Come on!” They get to the tent, where Phillips and his crew are writing paperwork. “Colonel Phillips.”

Phillips looks up from his paperwork, then continues signing forms. “Well, if it isn’t the Star-Spangled Man With A Plan. And what is your plan today?”

“I need the casualty list from Azzano.”

Phillips scoffed. “ You don’t get to give me orders, son.”

“I just need one name. Sergeant James Barnes from the hundred and seventh.”

Phillips points an accusing finger at Peggy. “You and I are gonna have a conversation later that you won’t enjoy.”

Steve’s voice turned pleading. “Please tell me if he’s alive, sir.”

Lee interjected. “That's B-A-R-N-”

Phillips glared at Lee. “I can spell.” He turned back to his paperwork. “I have signed more of these condolence letters today than I would care to count. But the name does sound familiar. I’m sorry.”

Lee spoke up. “What about the others? Are you planning a rescue mission?”

Phillips scoffed again. “Yeah! It’s called winning the war.”

Steve frowned. “But if you know where they are, why not at least…?”

“They’re thirty miles behind the lines. Through the most heavily fortified territory in Europe. We’d lose more men than we’d save. But I don’t expect you to understand that, because you’re a chorus girl.”

Steve’s jawline hardened, and his mouth pulled into a straight line. “ I think I understand just fine.”

Phillips waved his hand, dismissing them. “ Well then understand it somewhere else. If I read the posters correctly, you got some place to be in thirty minutes.” Phillips gets up from hs seat, and begins to walk away. Lee bumps Steve with an elbow, and motions to the map on the table next to Phillips's desk. Steve looks at the military map, memorizing it.

“Yes, sir. I do.” Steve begins to walk away, with Lee in tow.

Phillips's turns to Peggy, watching them go. “If you have something to say, right now is the perfect time to keep it to yourself.”

Peggy turns and follows Steve to his tent, where he starts to change. Lee is helping him pack some things, packing both their bags. “What do you plan to do? Walk to Austria?”

 _Of fucking course he is._ “If that’s what it takes,” he says, helping Lee pack their things.

“You heard the Colonel, your friend is most likely dead.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Even so, he’s devising a strategy. If he detects--”

Steve cuts her off. “By the time he’s done that, it could be too late!” He walks out, where a Jeep was waiting earlier. “You told me you thought I was meant for more than this. Did you mean that?”

Peggy looked proud at him. “Every word.”

Steve jumps into the Jeep, Lee in tow. “Then you gotta let me go.”

Peggy turns to Lee, who is buckling his seatbelt. “And what about you? I expect this from him, but why aren't you stopping him? You're supposed to be watching out for him!”

Lee turned to Peggy, shoulders high, eyes defiant. “I am watching out for him. Where he goes, I go.”

Peggy nods, and begins to leave in another direction. She stops, and instead turns and hops on into the Jeep. “I know a way to help. Let's go.”

 

°°°

Howard piloted the plane as Peggy was huddled in with Steve and Lee, poring over a map. “The HYDRA camp is in Krausberg, tucked between these two mountain ranges. It’s a factory of some kind.”

Howard’s voice calls from the cockpit. “We should be able to drop you right on the doorstep.”

Steve nods. “Just get me as close as you can.” He glances at the two, then glances in the direction of the cockpit. “You know, you two are gonna be in a lot of trouble at the lab.”

Lee rolls his eyes. “And you won’t? Plus what's this 'me’ business? I'm coming too, Stevie!”

Steve ignored Lee’s quip. “Where I’m goin’, if anybody yells at me I can just shoot ‘em.”

Peggy smiled at him, fond. “They will undoubtedly shoot back.”

“Well, let’s hope it’s good for somethin’.” He picks up his shield, and Lee grabs his parachute pack.

Howard’s voice came from the cockpit again, arrogant and playful. “Agent Carter, if we’re not in too much of a hurry I thought we could stop off in Lucerne for a late night fondue.” Lee nearly facepalmed, and Steve glared in the direction of the cockpit and began readying his own parachute pack.

Peggy looks almost sheepish, or embarrassed, Lee couldn't tell. “Stark is the best civilian pilot I’ve ever seen. He’s mad enough to brave this airspace, we’re lucky to have him.”

Steve turned to Peggy, a little red on his cheeks. “So are you two…? Do you…? Fondue?” This time, Lee really does facepalm, and Steve elbows him.

Peggy  ignores Steve’s awkward and confused rambling, and hands Lee a device. “This is your transponder. Activate it when you’re ready and the signal will lead us straight to you.”

“Are you sure this thing works?” Lee asked, turning the tiny box in his hands.

Howard speaks up. “It’s been tested more than you, pal.” The plane shakes in turbulence as enemy lines attack. Steve moves towards the opened door of the plane to jump, and Lee gets into position.

Peggy tries to stop him. “Get back here! We’re taking you all the way in.”

Steve shakes his head. “ As soon as we're free, you turn this thing around and get the hell outta here!”

Peggy looks furious. “You can’t give me orders!”

Steve grins. “The hell I can’t! I’m a Captain!” He looks back and jumps, Lee following close behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wowie, two chapters in one day. In all honesty these chapters are borderline filler until we get to the good fuckin stuff, but that's okay! I have to establish Lee's story into Caps life somehow!
> 
> as usual, comment subscribe kudos!
> 
> my Tumblr is cutiefrankie if you're interested in asking anything or if you like a cool marvel/multifandom blog
> 
> (god that sounds like i live in 2012 goodbye)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lee and Steve rescue the squad. Lee starts to realize Steve is hella fuckin pretty, dudes.

Steve jumps, followed by Lee, the force of the rushing air howling in their ears. Lee looks down, sees nothing but treetops and gunfire, and immediately regrets his decision to hop out of a plane at thirty thousand feet without a qualm in his mind.

“Uh… Steve?” he yells to him, who is a few hundred feet below. “You know how to parachute, right?”

“Nope,” he shouted. Lee groaned outwardly, and grabbed the rope attached to the pack’s opening. He watched as Steve did the same, and waited for his gauge to open the chute.

The closer the ground got, the more nervous Lee felt, until Steve yanked the rope, and… nothing happened. He tried again, and it detached itself from the pack.

“Fucking _SHIT,”_ Lee screamed, and let go of the rope of his own. Think, think, how the fuck can I get there faster, he thought, brain screaming. Instinctually he angled himself downward, as if diving into a pool, and spread out his arms. He glided closer and closer, and Steve was falling, falling, his body tense and frozen. “Steve, turn around!” He screamed, and angled his arms out to grab him. Steve flipped around, and Lee grabbed him, ricocheting him into a free fall, their limbs flying in random directions, no way to tell which is up.

Lee kept a vice grip on Steve, his fingers grabbing hold of anything he can reach, and he carefully tried to reach the chute’s rope, gaining purchase. The floor was coming up, faster and faster, it felt, and he closed his eyes and yanked on the rope, hard. The huge cloth billowed out of the pack, whipping his arm out of the way, and the wind caught hold, snapping them into place, like a huge sail. They were jolted out of their tumble, and painfully yanked upwards a little ways, before everything was calm. Well, calm for their situation. The sound of gunfire and ammunition still rang through the air, and Lee opened his eyes, and was met with Steve’s face in extremely close proximity.

Lee couldn’t help it, with Steve being so _close_ , he couldn’t stop himself from staring. Steve’s pupils were dilated, they were huge, especially in their close proximity. His eyelashes rested gently on his cheeks, and even in this dire situation, he looked fucking _angelic._ Steve stared right back, his lips parting as if to say something, when Lee broke away and realized _holyfuckingshit the treetops are way too close._

Lee tried to shout a warning before they crashed into the trees, branches slapping into their faces, twigs scratching at their legs. Lee felt scratches on his face, his neck, and something ripped a leg of his pants. They finally broke through the trees, and landed hard on the forest floor, parachute tangled in the trees they just crashed through above them. Steve landed on his side, and Lee landed right on top of him, groaning.

They both clambered up, Lee fumbling with the straps of the chute pack. Freeing himself from the chute, they began north, towards the HYDRA camp.

 

०००

 

They sneak into the facility, Steve punching a guard in the face, knocking him out cold. Lee crouches down, and searches his pockets. He pulls out a blue cartridge, and hands it to Steve. They rush through the building, knocking out any guards they come across, until the blank hallways open into a huge area overlooking what appeared to be cages, filled with men.

Lee tries to quietly knock out the guard patrolling the catwalk, facing away from them. The guard gives a little shout, before Lee can stop him, and he paused, waiting for more guards. Instead, he glances down at the cages, and see every man in the nearest cage staring up at him. He drops the guard’s body, and turns to Steve, who is busy unlocking the cells. Lee runs to the other cells and begins helping prisoners out of the cages.

One of the soldiers stepped forward, passing Steve as he helps the others file out of the cage. “Who are you supposed to be?” Steve multitasked, pulling prisoners out.

“I’m… Captain America.” Another soldier paused before passing Steve.

He gestured to an Asian soldier. “What, are we taking everybody?”

The Asian soldier in question glared and pulled a set of dog tags from out of his shirt. “I’m from Fresno, Ace.”

Steve searched the crowd again, falling short. “Is there anybody else? I’m looking for a Sergeant James Barnes.”

Another soldier pointed towards the other side of the catwalk. “There’s an isolation ward in the factory, but no one’s ever come back from it.” Steve nodded, and turned to the crowd.

“Listen up. The tree line is northwest, 80 yards past the gate. Get out fast and give ‘em hell. I’ll meet you guys in the clearing with anybody else I find.”

The first soldier called out. “Wait! You know what you’re doin’?”

Steve smiled, defiant. “Yeah. I’ve knocked out Adolf Hitler over two hundred times.” Lee finally joined him from the crowd, and rolled his eyes.

“Let’s go, Captain,” he said, and jerked his head towards the labs. Steve nodded again and they took off, leaving the prisoners to escape.

The prisoners escape into the compound, overpowering the guards with their sheer numbers.

Steve and Lee are at the end of the corridor when they finally spot Schmidt and Zola, preparing blueprints and various paperwork to be packed. Steve moves to charge them, but Lee throws out an arm and stops him. Steve turns and gives a puzzled look, but Lee puts his fingers to his lips, then points to his ears. _Shut up and listen, idiot._ They turn, and one door over, a voice can be heard, weak, but unmistakable.

“Sergeant. 32557… Sergeant. 32557…” Steve and Lee enter the room, and find a thin and weak Bucky, spread out and strapped into an examiner’s table.

“Bucky, oh my god. Bucky? Can you hear me?” Bucky weakly lifted his head and opened his eyes.

“Is that…” Steve gripped his arm, voice shaken.

“It’s me. It’s Steve.”

Bucky’s face seemed to light up in recognition. “Steve?” Lee rushed to unstrap him, fumbling with the buckles before finally freeing him. Steve pulled on his arm, and they both tried to help him to his feet.

“Come on.”

Bucky seemed to start to come to his senses. “Steve.”

“I thought you were dead.” Steve said, supporting his shoulders.

Bucky finally seemed to notice what was different. “I thought you were smaller.”

Steve chuckled and shook his head, leading him out of the room and into the catwalk. “Come on,” he said again.

“What happened to you?”

“I joined the Army.”

“Did it hurt?”

Steve shrugged. “A little.”

Bucky kept staring. “Is it permanent?”

“So far.”

“ _It better fucking be,_ ” Lee muttered, and Steve shot him a look of confusion, but the look was lost when then entire building seemed to shake, and a distant sound of an explosion wracked through the corridor. They run through the halls, both dragging Bucky with them.

Finally, they exit the corridor, into another open space, what looked to be an airplane hangar with more catwalks.. Schmidt and Zola are rushing towards the end of the hangar on the catwalk, when Lee and Steve spot them. Schmidt hears their footsteps, and turns around.

“Captain America! How exciting! I’m a great fan of your films. So Dr. Erskine managed it after all. Not exactly an improvement, but still impressive.” Steve is sprinting towards him during his greeting, and meets Schmidt with a hard punch to the face. It doesn’t seem to phase him, and he fights back. He reaches for a lever, and pulls it, and the catwalk splits down the middle. Lee and Bucky rush to one end, and Schmidt kicks Steve in the face, sending him tumbling. He grips the edge of the retreating catwalk, teetering over the edge, and Lee glaces to where Schmidt and Zolar are retreating onto the roof. Lee meets eyes with Bucky, who nods, and Lee takes off down his side of the catwalk towards the roof hatch.

Bucky looks down, where everything is on fire, and then looks left and right at the catwalk, searching for a closer jump point. He spots one, and rushes there, yelling for Steve to pick his ass up and get over here. Steve glances in Bucky’s direction, then swings his body until he gained enough momentum to swing up onto the catwalk. He gets up, and rushes to the galley, a huge space between him and Bucky, but smaller than the ledge he was previously swinging from.

Bucky looks around at his surroundings, again. “There’s gotta be a rope or something!” Steve shook his head, his mind made up.

“Just go, _get out of here!”_

Bucky screams, defiant, _“Not without you!”_

Steve backs up some yards, and sprints, straight toward the chasm of flames, and jumps.

 

०००

 

Lee sneaks through the roof hatch, where another chamber with a one-man plane is taking off. Zola watches it go, and turns around, right into Lee. Lee kicks him, his body falling backwards, and his head connects with the floor, knocked out. Lee searches his pockets, and finds a set of car keys, a strange-looking gun, and another blue cartridge. He turns back to the roof hatch, then looks farther and sees another hatch, one without smoke pouring out of it. He sprints to that one, which he throws open, and finds the garage, full of luxury cars and German vehicles used in their armies. He checks the key, and sees the brand’s emblem, and rushes to an expensive car with a matching emblem. He jumps in, and turns the ignition.

 

०००

 

Back at the camp, a few hours later, the escaped prisoners along with Steve and Bucky are welcomed by Colonel Phillips and Peggy, when they hear the sound of an engine, getting louder. The prisoners rush to hide, Steve holding his ground in front of Peggy and Phillips, shield ready. The sound slowly gets louder, until a sleek luxury car speeds into view and reveals a laughing Lee, one hand in the air in pure joy. He whoops and stops the car in front of the small group in front of him, who relax. Lee hops out of the car, hair flopping.

Steve grins, and meets him in the middle with a bone-crushing hug. “Didn’t know where you went, Bucky said you took off for Schmidt and Zola.” Lee returned the hug and tried not to lean into it too much. _I need to get over this sappy shit_ , he thought.

“Yeah, I missed Schmidt, but I knocked Zola out and stole his fancy stupid car. Who knows what’s in it,” he said, and turns to Phillips. He tosses the keys, and Peggy catches them, reflexes sharper than Phillips. Lee salutes, back straight. “Sir, I’m ready for any disciplinary actions you throw my way.”

“No need, soldier,” Phillips barks. “You earned your right to be here.” Lee nods, beaming, and turns to Steve. The prisoners finally realize there’s no attack, and come back out from hiding. Bucky jogs up from the small crowd, and captures Lee in another hug, softer this time.

“So you finally decide to show up!” Lee laughs and ruffles Bucky’s hair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So far this fic is 30 pages and personally I'm going to be shocked at how amny pages there are when this ends (we've got a long way to go though)
> 
> Find me on Tumblr! cutiefrankie.tumblr.com


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get fun, then gay, then gayer, then sad. Lee gets some new digs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> quick warning for Lee's uh SUGGESTIVE thoughts sorry yall bhdnjdhbbufd

Lee stood with Steve, Peggy, and Colonel Phillips around a large table, examining a map of Europe. Different marks were scattered across the parchment, and Steve pointed to another region, and marked some more. They had been flown to London from Italy for their debriefing, and Lee still hadn’t gotten the chance to take a look around. He didn’t mind, though, because the feeling of finally being important in his new job outweighed the missed opportunity.

“The fifth one was here in Poland, right near the Baltic.” More marks on the map. “And the sixth one was… about here, 30, 40 miles west of the Maginot Line…I just got a quick look.” Another soldier picked up the map and departed. Peggy turned to him with a playful smile on her lips.

“Well, nobody’s perfect.” Steve nodded seriously, and turned to Phillips.  _ He really doesn’t understand women at all, does he, _ Lee thought, and tried to pay attention to their debriefing.

“These are the weapon factories we know about. Sergeant Barnes said that Hydra shipped all the parts to another facility that isn’t on this map.” Lee pointed to one more, missed by Steve, and Steve marked another spot. “Well,  _ now  _ there’s all of them.”

Phillips turned to Peggy. “Agent Carter, coordinate with MI6. I want every Allied eyeball looking for that main Hydra base.”

“What about us?” She asked. Phillips looked determined, with a newfound passion in his eye. He almost looked cheerful, something Lee’s never seen in the stout angry man.

“We are gonna set a fire under Johann Schmidt’s ass. What do you say, Rogers? It’s your map, you think you can wipe Hydra off of it?” Lee perked up, hopeful.

Steve grinned and shook his hand. “Yes, sir. I’ll need a team.”

“We’re already putting together the best men.” Lee deflated internally, of course he is.

Steve shook his head, defiant. “With all due respect, sir. So am I.”

 

०००

 

Lee leaned against the counter of the bar and ordered a Manhattan, having heard another soldier order the same. He grabbed his drink, a whiskey cocktail with lemon, and joined the group gathered around a round table, discussing plans.

Steve nodded at Lee, and he raised his drink. He took a sip and immediately sputtered, the strong whiskey burning his throat. He tried to play it off, and tipped the rest back down his throat. Steve pretended not to see, but the tiny secret smile on his face ruined the image. Lee tipped the glass back one more time, and caught the lemon wedge between his teeth. The whiskey wasn't so bad soaked in the lemon, so he savored it and tuned back in to the conversation.

Dum Dum Dugan, a burly man with an impressively sculpted mustache and a bowler hat atop his head, leaned forward. “So, let’s get this straight.”

Another soldier, Gabe Jones, spoke up. “We barely got out of there alive, and you want us to go back?” Steve shrugged and nodded.

“Pretty much.”

James Falsworth, chimed in. “Sounds rather fun, actually."

Jim Morita leans in as well. “I’m in.”

Gabe Jones speaks to another soldier, Jacques Dernier, in French, then they both laugh and turn to the group. “We’re in.”

Dum Dum takes one last swig of his glass, and sets it down. “Hell, I’ll always fight. But you got to do one thing for me.

Steve looked suspicious. “What’s that?”

Dum Dum grinned from ear to ear. “Open a tab.”

Morita laughs it loud. “Well, that was easy.”

Steve gets up from the table and walks over to the bar, and ordered another round for the group. Lee watches him go, quiet. He goes to sip his drink, but realizes it's empty, and happens to glance back at the table. Everyone's laughing and singing along to an old bar song, and he felt a swell of pride in this new team. Steve leans against the counter, and Lee glances back to him, and his breath catches in his throat, table forgotten.

He watches his arms, the muscles rippling under his uniform, the curve of his back. He knew he couldn't get drunk from the whiskey, but  _ fuck. _ Bucky joins him, and they strike up a conversation. Lee's eyes leave no prisoners, and he watches Bucky as well, observes his features. Even before the Serum, he noticed Bucky was easy on the eyes, but in his uniform, he looked  _ dashing, _ and Lee was lost in thought at what both of them could do to him, they could pin him down, tease him, make him beg for mercy, they could easily just fucking take him for all he had, and he would've ravished in it, Lee wanted to drag them both to somewhere quiet, and give them what they're looking for--

Peggy strides up to the two, wearing a gorgeous red dress and heels, her hair is curled and not a strand out of place. The fantasy is ruined. Lee grimaced, and shook himself out of his private stupor, and tried to pay attention to the group again. He didn't mean to be jealous, this white-hot feeling running through him. He knew Steve was interested in her, he could see it all over his face, there was no denying it.

Lee got up out of his chair and walked to the bar, and ordered another Manhattan. At least they tasted good after a while, and he ordered an extra while he was there, to save the trip. Peggy was discussing work plans with Steve, and Bucky tried to flirt, offer her a dance, but she shut him down. Lee smirked a little, hearing the poor playboy be rejected, but didn't say anything. Steve watched Peggy leave, and Bucky finally noticed Lee waiting for his drinks, and nudged Steve in the side gently. Steve turned to Lee, finally noticing he was there as well.

“Lee! Are you ready for tomorrow's fun? I heard Agent Carter say Howard's going to test out some new equipment for you boys.” Bucky greeted him, and Steve wrapped an arm around the shorter man's shoulders, giving him a light squeeze.

“You alright?” He murmured quietly to him, and Lee relaxed a tiny bit. Steve smelled like light cologne and his arm was warm and heavy on his shoulders.

“I'm fine, just a bit tired. And yeah, she briefed me before we all left for here, so I would be ready for it. I guess she didn't tell you earlier, or I would have.” Steve looked a little bit quizzical, and let go of his shoulders.

Bucky noticed Lee's tone change slightly when talking about Peggy, and zeroed in on it. “So, I'm guessing you're not a fan of Miss Carter, are you, Lee? She seems like an all around bright woman. What do you think?” Lee looked at Bucky, narrowing his eyes, knowing exactly what he's trying to say.  _ What's with the interrogation?  _ He wanted to ask, but he knew that conversation wouldn't go well.

“Well… uh…” He took a moment to say the right words. “I think she's brilliant, but I also think her interests might be… uh…” He glanced at Steve, then continued, “too close.” Bucky watched him closely, then let it go. No sense in mentioning something he shouldn't. Especially right now, where it would mean dire consequences.

“All right then, fair enough. Keep an eye on her for me then, since Steve can't keep his eyes away.” Steve snapped his head up to Bucky and turned bright red. Lee laughed, and Bucky took that as a victory. The bartender finally came back with their large round, as well as Lee's two drinks, and they joined the group, passing alcohol out to eager hands. 

  
  


°°°

 

The next morning, Lee woke up freezing, his chest bare and his blanket on the floor of his and Steve's shared room, Steve's bed already made and Steve himself already gone to see Howard. Lee rubbed the crust from his eyes, and sat up. He jumped out of bed from the top bunk, and strode into the tiny bathroom attached to the tiny room, and washed his face. He gazed in the mirror, tan skin and dark hair gazing back. He rubbed his cheek, then ghosted his fingers over his upper lip, where his mustache grew, and he smiled.  _ Maybe I should shave, shake things up a bit _ , he thought, but decided against it. He brushed his teeth, and walked back into the bedroom, changing his clothes quickly into the fatigues he was issued, all black, warm and no longer huge on him like it was  _ before. _

He finally left their quarters, and headed to the weapons lab. Steve was already waiting with Peggy and Howard, and Howard was going over various prototypes of guns and other scientists were running tests on the guns that Bucky's group brought back from the HYDRA camp. Howard greeted him, and immediately walked over to another table, lined with different weapons and bits of what looked like armor.

“So Lee,” he called, gesturing for the other three to come over, “I've put some thought into what I could do with you, both combat- and defense-wise. Steve’s got  his shield, but what do you have? You watch his back. So, you lean more towards stealth and defense, rather than combat. So I made here a few pieces.” He moved his arm in a sweeping motion towards the table, and Lee leaned in closer to look. There was armor, just like Lee initially thought, but it was  _ different. _ The armor seemed to be mechanical in some ways, and Lee traced a hand over it. The panels in the armor shifted with his fingers, and he played with it, fascinated by its shimmer. He turned to the next weapon, which was a shield similar to Steve's, but was smaller and looked like it didn't cover much. He dismissed that one and continued, passing guns in various degrees of drama until he stopped at a pair of gauntlets, with panels on the tips of fingers in the glove. Lee grabbed one and tried it on, slipping into the glove and feeling the texture inside. It was soft, but firm, and he tested the panels on the tips and gently touched them with his bare other hand. The panels felt ridged, similar to fingerprints.

“Those are pulse shockers,” Howard said. “When you turn them on, they’ll emit a pulse of pure energy that will incapacitate anyone or anything you touch. I tested them a week ago, the pain is not a pretty feeling.”

“I want these and the armor, if you don't mind, Howard,” Lee said, grabbing the other glove and turning back toward the armor.

“That armor is actually similar to the gloves! The paneling on the armor emits the same energy, just less so. It's made more as a… repellent, of sorts.” Lee nodded and grabbed the armor as well.

“I’ll take them. May I try the armor on?” Howard nodded enthusiastically and Lee set to work. He kept his undershirt on and his underwear, then  slipped the armored suit on. It fit snug, but not too tight, and the armored panels fit on his torso, his forearms, his thighs, and his shins. There was also a split panel on his back, and he decided to grab his jacket and put it on over the suit.

“Does the shock work over clothes?” He asked, turning his legs this way and that. Howard nodded again, and handed him his pants. He slipped them on, and turned  to Steve, who was watching next to Peggy. Howard showed him the button to turn the suit on, and Lee grabbed the gauntlets too.

Lee crouched in a defensive stance at Steve, who grinned and shrugged his  jacket off, grabbing his new circular shield that he picked before Lee arrived. Lee circled him, and pounced, fingers buzzing. They sparred, and Steve made contact with the armor, being thrown backwards a few times until Lee understood  how his suit worked. Lee's kicks became more and more powerful, and he realized the energy in the suit was building up each time he made impact with Steve's shield, the vibranium vibrating waves of energy from the gauntlets. Finally they collided one last time, and both of  them were thrown back by the blast of energy released from Lee’s suit against Steve’s shield. Lee sat down on the floor, breath knocked out of him, and let out a breathy laugh. Steve got up from where he was thrown, and staggered a moment before righting himself, a huge smile on his face.

“So,” he said, breathless. “I think that’ll work for us.” Lee looked down at the gauntlets, trying to calm his hammering heart at  _ us. Us. That'll work for us. _

Peggy interrupted Lee's thoughts. “Well, since we've got that sorted out,” she said. “I have other things to do. Good day, Howard, Lee,  _ Captain _ .” The last bit was said rather curtly, and she departed. Lee looked at Steve quizzically, but he just shook his head and joined Howard.

“I had some ideas about the uniform.” He gave Howard a piece of paper, and turned back to Lee, who was up and waiting to go, already changed out of the suit.

Howard took a look at the paper. filled with sketches, and grinned. “Whatever you want, pal.”

 

°°°

Over the next few months, Steve, Bucky, Lee, and the Commandos slowly but steadily took down each HYDRA base they could find, and Lee's suit slowly became like a second skin to him. He stopped taking it off when he was on duty, and simply wore his pants and his jacket over it, staying warm but light. He learned the panels worked through even thick fabrics, everything except for leather, and retrofitted his pants to carry multiple types of knives, grenades, and various other weapons without becoming bulky.

Sometimes during missions, Bucky would run past him, scream “KNIFE!” and a switchblade would be thrown either at Bucky or at the enemy Bucky was running to. Sometimes Bucky would be accidentally stabbed in the arm, and he would just grit his teeth, yank the knife out, and use it to finish the job, his blood still staining it. Later Lee would apologize profusely and try to help bandage him up, but Bucky would wave it off and laugh.

Lee grew to feel the same fluttering protectiveness of Bucky as he does with Steve, and now the original thoughts he had that day in the bar came back in full force. He would force himself not to daydream, but instead his unconscious mind at night would flood with the dreams of the three together.

They finally wind down to the last known HYDRA base, deep in the mountains. The snow whips in their faces, and the Commandos prepare to zipline onto a train, headed into the mountain.

Bucky turned to Steve, before they're supposed to jump off. “Remember when I made you ride the Cyclone at Coney Island?”   


“Yeah, I and I threw up?”

Bucky frowned. “This isn’t payback, is it?”

Steve grinned and tried to look innocent. “Now why would I do that?”

Gabe locates Zola through binoculars.  “We were right. Dr. Zola’s on the train. Hydra dispatcher gave him permission to open up the throttle. Wherever he’s going, they must need him bad.”

Falsworth looked nervous. “Let’s get going, because they’re moving like the devil.”

Steve analyzed the distance between the group and the train. “We only got about a 10-second window. You miss that window, we’re bugs on a windshield.”

“Mind the gap.” Falsworth says, and readies the zipline.

Dum Dum turns to Steve, Bucky, and Lee. “Better get moving, bugs!”

Dernier keeps his eye on the train. “ _ Maintenant _ ! (Now!)” Steve, Bucky, and Lee zipline onto the train, wind whipping their faces. They land onto the top of the train, one by one, and sneak into one of the cars.

Lee switches on his suit and gauntlets, and Steve and Bucky head inside, shooting and knocking out HYDRA agents, while he takes up the rear. As the fight gets louder and more intense, more agents rush to where they slowly advanced, and others tried to come up from behind. Lee took each one down, bullets ricocheting off his armor, and he slammed his hands into the metal walls, creating a shockwave of energy that slammed into the agents from both sides, crumpling them. Lee turned to Steve, and did the same to his shield, sending a blast of energy reverberating off his shield, knocking out more soldiers.

They finally make it to Zola's car, where the tiny man screamed orders to soldiers, Steve and Bucky intercepting them.

Another trooper with a blaster appears, and Steve shouts a warning, but it's too late. The soldier blasts a huge hole out of the side of the train, sending Bucky tumbling until he grabs onto a broken railing, dangling off the side of the train over the mountain.

Steve scrambles to the edge, trying to grab him, and Lee rushes the soldier with the blaster, sending him falling out of the hole, tumbling through the open air down the mountain below. Lee turns and rushes to Zola, and kicks him hard in the face.

“Remember me, asshole?” He yells, and Zola is thrown from one side of the car to the other, slamming hard into the wall, leaving a dent in the shape of him against the wall.

Lee turns to Steve and Bucky, and realizes what's about to happen. Steve leans a little too close, and Lee rushes to grab him. Bucky's hand slips, and he tumbles, screaming, and suddenly Steve is screaming, struggling against Lee's hold, screaming for Bucky. Lee can only pull him from the edge, his throat tight and his hands shaking. 

 

He's gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> couldn't help this one but its still sad : (


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's sad, it's gay, it's still sad. Just warning you: it's sad.

Steve held a tumbler of scotch in his hands, seated at a ruined table, listening quietly to the radio, listing bombing procedures and blackout updates. He pours more of the scotch into his tumbler, and takes a sip, letting it burn his throat, anything to combat the numbness that creeps in his limbs. He stared at the destroyed counter of the bar, where he laughed with Bucky and Lee, where he asked the Commandos to join him. He thought about Bucky, and he replayed his fall over and over in his mind, blaming himself. He downed the scotch, and got up from the table, leaving the London ruins of the bar that began their journey together as a team.

 

°°°

 

Lee sits in his bed, staring at nothing, feeling everything. He thinks about nothing but Bucky, and Steve. About the first time he saw Bucky, the happiness in his face, how moments before he was _gone_ he was cracking jokes with Steve, and now it's all gone. Fucking _gone._ The door to their shared bedroom opens, and Steve walks in, looking like the weight of the world was on his shoulders alone. Lee watched him, as he walked into the bathroom, shut the door. The quiet sound of water running, from the sink, then it stops. More silence, then the shower faucet starts. Steve showering, feeling like hours, when it was only a few minutes. Steve finally comes out, hair wet and a towel around his waist, and he grabs a shirt and pants out of the dresser in the corner. Lee still watches silently, until Steve comes back out of the bathroom, fully dressed for bed. Lee's on the bottom bunk this time, so Steve moved to climb to the top bunk. Lee stops him, hand on his arm, and says nothing, just stares. Steve stands there, hand gripping the railing, and stares back, an unspoken conversation between them.

He finally lets go of the railing, and maneuvers into the bottom bunk, crawling in with Lee. Lee's heart is hammering, because Steve's _there_ , but he knows it's not for him. Steve wraps his arms around Lee's waist, and nestles his face into Lee's torso. Lee isn't sure what to do, so he decides comfort is best. He gently places his hand on Steve's shoulder, ghosting over his shoulder until he's rubbing circles into Steve's back, and he thinks _fuck it_ and begins massaging Steve's scalp with the other hand, trailing his fingers through Steve's wet hair, until Steve lets go and slumps into a heap of sobs in Lee's torso. Lee stays quiet, his own tears falling, and just comforts him. They stay like that for a while, their tears soaking their clothes and their hearts, the pain of Bucky bringing them closer.

Steve lifted his head and stared right at Lee, red rimmed eyes and harsh red cheeks, and pulled him lower down the bed, until Lee was laying down, and they embraced, tangling their bodies together in comfort. They both nestled themselves together, in warm suffering, and stayed like that, until both fell asleep, tear stains drying on their shirts and the heaviness no longer a solo burden for each other.

 

°°°

  
The next day, Steve was gone from bed, and Lee was cold, and he decided not to say anything about their... moment last night. He gets ready, and joined the team in the main base. They were discussing battle plans when he arrives in his suit, and Steve nods at him in greeting, face guarded.

“Johann Schmidt belongs in a bug house. He thinks he’s a god. He’s willing to blow up half the world to prove it, starting with the USA.” Phillips addressed the group.

Howard speaks up, pointing to schematics taken from Zola, who was being held in their custody after the Commando’s capture. “Schmidt’s working with powers beyond our capabilities. He gets across the Atlantic, he will wipe out the entire eastern seaboard in an hour.”

Gabe looks disgusted. “How much time we got?”

“According to my new best friend, under twenty four hours,” Phillips says, meaning Zola.

Dernier peers at the map on the table in front of them. “Where is he now?”

“Hydra’s last base is here,” Phillips says, pointing to the base, “In the Alps. Five hundred feet below the surface.”

“So, what are we supposed to do. I mean, it’s not like we can just knock on the front door.” Morita says, discouraged. Steve thinks a moment, and then it dawns on him.

He turns to Morita. “Why not? That’s exactly what we’re gonna do.”

 

°°°

 

Steve somehow loses his shield, so he takes to fists alone, punching and pushing, kicking and flipping Hydra soldiers out of his way. Steve barrels through dozens and dozens of soldiers, until he bursts into the weapons lab of the Hydra base to find Schmidt waiting, preparing a cargo plane with explosives. Steve wasted no time, charging Schmidt and engaging in intense combat against him, nothing but fists and rage flying.

The windows to the weapons lab exploded, sending glass flying and the Howling Commandos in its wake. Falsworth has Steve's shield, and he tosses it to him.

“Hey Rogers, you might need this!” He shouts, and Steve catches it easily.

“Thanks!” He shouts back, and Lee joins his side, gauntlets buzzing.

“Sorry I'm late,” he says, punching a soldier and sending him flying, “I got caught up in some errands.”

“Excuses, excuses,” teased Steve, and they dove through even more soldiers, Schmidt already gone with the plane. “Let's go get that bastard and save the country!” The two leave the lab with the Commandos, and they sprint down the tarmac where the cargo plane is beginning to leave the terminal.The plane is already too fast, and even Steve’s abnormal speeds can’t catch up to it. They slow down, but hear the roar  of an engine behind them. Lee turns, and a car is speeding down the tarmac, Phillips and Peggy in the front seat.

They hop into the car behind Peggy and Phillips, and off they go. They easily catch up with the plane from there, and Lee prepares to jump onto the place's wheel, when Peggy stops Steve, and kisses him. Lee feels a stab of jealousy and hurt, but says nothing, and jumps onto the wheel, Steve following.  
  
Inside the cargo plane, there are multiple smaller figher planes with their targets written on them: Boston, Chicago, New York. Lee runs to one and begins trying to disable the fighter planes, and he takes out the pilots inside, one by one. Steve advances into the cockpit where Schmidt is waiting.

Lee disables all the explosives and runs to the cockpit, where he sees just in time Schmidt being thrown into a sort of portal being emitted from a blue cube, and then the cube being thrown out of the plane to the water below, with Steve trying to gain control of the plane.

“How the fuck do we get into these situations?” Lee said, joining Steve at the copilot's seat.

“Good question,” Steve replied, “now let's get out of it."

As Steve tries to take over the plane’s controls, Lee reads "Ziel New York City" (target New York City) on a screen showing targets, and tries the radio which is picked up by the Hydra control tower occupied by Peggy, Phillips and Morita.

“Come in. This is Captain Rogers and Lieutenant Leigh. Do you read me?”

Morita answers, but is cut off immediately by Peggy.

“Lee, is that you? Are you alright?”

Lee answered. “It's me, Schmidt’s dead.”

Peggy sounded relieved. “What about the plane?”

Steve grabbed the receiver from Lee. “That’s a little bit tougher to explain.”

“Give me your coordinates, I’ll find you a safe landing site.”

Steve was stubborn and defiant, but he sounded so sure of himself that Lee didn't process what he said. “There’s not going to be a safe landing. But I can try and force it down.”

Peggy sounded frantic. “I’ll get Howard on the line, he’ll know what to do.”

“There’s not enough time. This thing’s moving too fast and it’s heading for New York.” Steve paused. He spoke again after a moment, voice wavering. “I gotta put her in the water.” Lee's head snapped up back to Steve.

Peggy’s voice was strained. “Please, don’t do this. We have time. We can work it out.”

“Right now I’m in the middle of nowhere. If I wait any longer a lot of people are gonna die. Peggy, this is my choice.” He turns to Lee, and flips the autopilot switch back on. “I'm sorry.” Quick as lightning, before Lee could react, Steve punched him in the face, hard, and picked up his unconscious body, running into the cargo area, and throwing a life jacket and an emergency pack on Lee. Lee woke up, confused, right before Steve threw him unceremoniously out of the fucking plane.

Lee was wide awake now, head pounding, flying through the air, before he landed hard into the water. He broke the surface, sputtering.

He screamed in anguish, floating in the waves. “Steve you _FUCKING BASTARD! STEVE!”_

He watched the plane fade into the distance, the sound of the waves roaring in his ears. It took all he could to stay upright, and he heard a distant crash, almost faint enough that he couldn't tell where it came from. The water was freezing, and his teeth chattered. He opened the biggest pocket in the pack Steve gave him, and yanked a cord. A life raft exploded into inflation, and he crawled in. Rummaging through the pack, he found a waterproof container with a radio inside.

He switched between channels, trying to find a working channel, from anyone. “Mayday! Mayday, I don't know what to fucking say, ANYONE! Emergency! SOS! SOMEONE!” He yelled into the radio, and Peggy answered.

“Is Steve there?! Please  tell me he’s there with you,” she demanded frantically. Lee’s voice was hoarse and numb.

“I'm sorry Peggy. He threw me out of the plane.” Lee couldn't do anything but stare at the radio as the sounds of anguish filled his ears.

 

_I'm sorry._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I know you hate me right now but I promise it'll be better soon, just wait next chapter! 
> 
> As usual, kudos comment subscribe etc. I update regularly!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve's back. Things are confusing. Lee hasn't changed.

_New York, 2011._

 

Lee was making breakfast when he got the call, omelette abandoned on the counter. His cell phone rang, and he tapped the little green dot on the touch screen, and it wouldn't answer. He tried again, grumbling about stupid technology, until he swiped the dot and the call connected.

“He's awake, HQ. Be here in one hour.” The call disconnected, and Lee rushed into action.

His apartment door was hurriedly locked and he rushed to his car, throwing himself in and speeding out of the driveway.

The drive to SHIELD's headquarters was nerve-wracking, his entire body felt alight with energy, like he drank an entire gallon of coffee. He got there with fifteen minutes to spare, and was let in through the gate, armed guards nodding at him in greeting. He parked, and powerwalked as quickly as he could, until he entered the building.

The elevator was silent, other agents in the elevator waiting for their floor, and Lee was getting even more anxious as the floors rose in number. Finally, the seventh floor came, and he left the tiny elevator, headed to his supervisor's office. He stopped at the secretary's desk, and nodded to her, and she buzzed him in.

Nick Fury turned around in his office chair, and so did a built figure with blond hair and blue eyes, standing at Fury's desk. Lee froze. Time seemed to stop for him.

_Steve._

_Steve._

“Steve.”

“Lee,” Steve whispered, a mixture of emotion all over his face. Steve took one step forward, then all but ran the few steps to Lee, and embraced him in a crushing bear hug. Lee still stood there, unbelieving, until it hit him that it's fucking _Steve, it's really him,_ and Lee nearly collapsed under the onslaught of emotions that came over him. He wrapped his arms around Steve's waist, tight, and buried his head into his neck.

“ _Steve,”_ he whispered, and breathed him in, his smell of light cologne and gunpowder still the same after all these years. Seventy fucking years.

Lee finally pulled away to get a good look at him. He hadn't changed. He wore a tight fitting shirt, and simple khaki pants, but he was still the same Steve. Who _threw him off a goddamn plane, STEVE._ Lee pushed him away, a little harsh, and Steve looked confused, hurt?

“You fucking bastard,” he spat. “You threw me off a _plane!”_ Steve didn't look confused anymore, only sheepish.

“Listen, I--”

“No, don't you dare. You stubborn, you, you fucking, goddammit.” Lee shook his head, the rage falling off him, and then he just looked tired. Weary. Seventy fucking _years._ “You left me.”

Steve put his hand on his shoulder, and squeezed. “I know. I'm sorry.” Fury cleared his throat, and the moment was broken.

“Agent Leigh. Now that the reunion has been dealt with, we have business to take care of.” Lee stood up straight, and walked to the front of the desk.

“Sir.” Steve joined him.

“Since you are the closest contact of Rogers, you will be assigned as his handler for now, until he…. adjusts, to modern life. Make sure he stays out of trouble, and keep him ready.” Lee nodded, and took the manila envelope handed to him, with his instructions written inside, just paperwork for the records. “I already briefed him on SHIELD's official job description, and unofficial job description. He can stay with you for now, unless you have any objections?” Lee shook his head, and Fury turned to Steve. “Captain, it would be best for you to stay with Agent Leigh, and get used to all of this. I know it might be hard adjusting, but your friend here has done so just fine. Expect to hear from me soon about any assignment offers. Dismissed.” Steve nodded and they both left the office, and headed back to the elevator. Lee lead the way, out of the building, to his own car, a black compact car with tinted windows. Steve got in the passenger seat, and off they went.

“So,” started Steve. “What did I miss?”

“You're kidding,” snapped Lee.

“Lee, I-”

“You have no idea how fucking happy I am to see you, but also so fucking _furious_ at you right now. I don't know whether to scream at you or hug you, and I'm very close to just screaming in general. What did you _miss?_ Everything! Every fucking thing! UGH!” Lee took a deep breath, nearly started furiously ranting again, then stopped himself. They sat in silence, Steve watching the view outside the window, Lee fuming quietly to himself.

Steve finally broke the silence. “You know,” he said. “At least the trees didn't change.” Lee didn't say anything, but felt himself calm down, slowly, in little steps. The anger dissipated, and with it left a strange mix of sadness and happiness. He left, but he's back. It's Steve. Lee couldn't keep a grudge over this man, not then, not now.

“Actually,” he quipped. “They're now making these tree hybrids that are two different species of tree. Like orange-apple trees, and the like.” Steve turned to Lee, and gave him a small smile.

“Well, how about that,” he said. “An or...orapple tree. An apporange? Appange? Orpple?” Lee chuckled at him, and the mood lifted in the car, and Lee turned down his street, pulling into the driveway of his apartment complex.

Steve got out of the car, and stared at all of it. The buildings were different than he was used to, and the cars that were parked in neat rows in front were _definitely_ different, but the air of the place was the same. Children played in the park across the street, and neighbors walked their dogs. Lee watched Steve take it all in.

“Come on, Stevie,” he finally said. “Let's go inside, get you settled.” Steve turned at the familiar nickname, and followed Lee down a corridor of doors, until they reached Lee's. They stepped inside, and Steve took in Lee's apartment. Quaint, simple, but modern.

His apartment was a two bedroom space with a set of spiral stairs leading to a loft. The bottom floor held a living room with a soft looking old couch and a simple TV set, as well as a record player with a stack of records piled next to it. To the left, a hallway lead to two bedrooms and a bathroom at the end. A counter separated the kitchen from the living room, and the small kitchen was lined with light gray tile and simple kitchen appliances. To the right of the kitchen was a small dining room, where a table sat with two chairs. Steve looked up at the second floor area, the loft, and he could see the tops of shelving with books scattered about. There were plants everywhere, from what looked like herbs on the windowsill in the kitchen, to flowers resting daintily on a side table in the living room. Various plants and flowers were placed in pots around the rooms, and it gave the entire living space a sense of life and freshness.

“So,” Lee said. “This is my place. The loft is my study area, you're welcome to explore after you get settled. My room is the door on the left, and the guest room you can use as yours at the right. Bathroom's next to your room, and that's really it aside from the laundry area two corridors down the way. I'll make some lunch while you unpack your bag.” Lee set the file he got from Fury on the counter, and strode into the kitchen. He grabbed the omelette and trashed it, and washed the plate off in the sink. Opening the fridge, he grabbed some lunch meat and condiments, and gathered up some veggies for sandwiches. Steve walked down the hallway, and turned to the right, entering the guest room. A queen sized bed lay in the corner of the room, and a simple dresser and nightstand occupied the rest of the space. A closet was nestled on the remaining empty wall, and Steve set his bag down in front of the closet door.

He could hear Lee rummaging about in the kitchen, so he sat down on the bed and just looked around the room. A lamp sat on the nightstand next to an electronic clock, which read 11:16 am.

Lee popped his head in the bedroom. “Lunchtime, Stevie,” he chirped, and left the hallway.

  


°°°

 

Steve sat on the bench of the neighborhood park, people watching. He’d told Lee he needed some fresh air, and that he wouldn’t be gone for very long, but he really just needed to get out. He needed a moment to himself, to process that he’s _here,_ alive, and he just couldn’t wrap his head around any of it, not at the moment. He watched the kids play on the playground, some swinging on creaky swings, others sliding down slides and running around, playing tag. He watched as a couple walked down the sidewalk, hand in hand, and briefly thought about Peggy, and what happened to her. Thinking about Peggy brought a wave of guilt, and loss, so he tried to push it aside. He wasn’t ready to deal with that yet, but he mentally made himself a reminder to ask Lee what had happened to her and the Commandos.

The Commandos…. _Bucky._ It ached to think about him. He would have been fascinated with the modern world, and it would have been nice to process this with Bucky at his side.

He sat there, brooding, until someone quietly sat down next to him on the bench. He looked up, and Lee didn’t say anything, he just observed the world around him. Steve took the time to study his face, see what changed in him. Seventy years had worn him down, but he still looked youthful as ever. He had kept his hair short, wavy hair still the same as before. He didn’t have a mustache anymore, but rather kept himself clean-shaven, same caramel skin as before. There was a tiredness to his eyes, though, and his shoulders looked heavier, as if the weight of the world is leaning too heavily for his taste. He was still Lee, though, and that was all that mattered. Steve didn’t have Bucky anymore, but he had Lee, and that was all he could ask for.

“Things have changed, Steve,” Lee finally broke the silence, “but in ways I don’t think we ever considered back then. I used to watch everyone, watch our teammates, watch the world around me. It’s changed so quickly, there’s so much to see now. I honestly don’t know where to start, what to show you.”

Steve thought a moment, and found an idea. “Why not show me what’s happened to all the old stuff? Like my old apartment and the old corner diner I met you near, and the old movie theater.”

“That’s a great idea, actually! If you want we could actually see a movie tonight. Maybe a lighthearted one to get you acquainted with some things.” Steve smiled, and turned to Lee.

“That sounds great. I also have some questions… about what you’ve been doing all this time. We won the war, but what happened after?” Lee’s cheerful expression wavered a tiny bit, and he let it fall, back to the serious expression it held before.

“It’s… complicated. I’ll help you regain some knowledge, history-wise, but what I did after the war is.... Classified. I want to tell you, but I’m not allowed for the most part. Plus, we can’t talk about any of that here.” Steve nodded, understanding. “But modern things I can tell you about, like technology and stuff. Oh! That’s another thing!” Steve looked at him expectantly.

“Yes?”

Lee grinned from ear to ear. “You need a cell phone.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one's more cheerful, don't you think? I might write one more chapter of Steve adjusting, then get onto the plot of avengers. Moss Wheatthin is a shit scriptwriter though so im going to seriously change some shit. Stay tuned!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve adjusts, Lee shows him the 21st century. Tony's a little shit.

Steve’s been adjusting to the modern world for a few weeks now, and he’s got a new routine down. He wakes up at 6am, like he always did, and goes for a run until 8am. He runs through the neighborhood, then runs all the way to the old corner diner, now a bakery, where he stops and grabs a muffin and takes one to go for Lee. After that, he runs back home, takes a shower, and makes breakfast, eggs and bacon for him, and an omelette with cheese for Lee. By that time, about 9am, Lee wakes to the smell of bacon, and joins Steve for breakfast.

Steve finishes his breakfast, then sits down in the living room, and watches some morning television. He watches anything, from cartoons to sitcoms, to talk shows. Lee finishes his breakfast and makes himself a smoothie with protein and at least one vegetable, Steve has no idea why, and then he retreats to his study in the loft. Steve’s been up there, and he loves the space, but he’s learned that when Lee is in the study in the morning then he doesn’t like to be disturbed. Lee reads for a while, but then will work on paperwork of some sort at his desk, and Steve avoids his desk as much as he can. The computer that rests there still feels foreign to him, just like his phone. Lee types away for hours at a time, sometimes, before getting up around 1pm to make them lunch.

By then, Steve’s tired of TV, so he joins him for lunch and then sits with Lee in the loft, sketching. Lee finishes his paperwork around 4pm, then heads downstairs to prepare dinner. Steve sometimes helps him, learning new recipes, but most of the time Lee likes to make dinner himself. Dinner is ready around 5pm, and they eat together, quiet but content. Steve washes and Lee dries the dishes, and neither of them bother with the dishwasher. (‘It doesn’t clean the dishes right, so I gave up on it,’ remarks Lee.) 6pm comes, and they decide usually to take a run together around the park, then they both hit the gym down the street. Steve takes to punching bags, and Lee does yoga with a group.

They both finish around 8pm, and they jog or sometimes walk back home together. By 9:30 they’re both showered and in bedclothes, Steve in pajama pants and Lee in a t-shirt and boxers. Life is quiet, and their domestic… assignment is uneventful. Sometimes they go out, instead of making dinner, and they’ll catch a movie or some kind of local event and eat out. Lee likes to take Steve to new things, like the food festival last week, and Steve takes it all in stride. Any questions Steve has, Lee answers-- “Lee, what’s a chimichanga?”-- and Steve just  _ learns. _

Eventually something has to change. Change comes when Steve is watching his morning television and there’s a knock on the door. He goes to get up, before Lee calls, “I’ll get it!” and bounds down the spiral stairs to the door. He opens it, and standing there is Tony Stark.

“Tony!” Lee greets, and lets him inside. Tony’s cheerful and his hands are full of fresh strawberries, when he turns and sees Steve. Lee hurries to introduce him. “Uh, Steve, this is Tony Stark, Howard’s son. Tony, this is Steve, as you probably know.” Tony eyed him up and down, face unreadable.

“I’d recognize that face anywhere,” said Tony. “So they found you, popsicle. Should I say Capsicle? Yeah, I like that, rings better in the ears.” Steve got up from the couch, and walked into the foyer, and faced Tony, who was much shorter.

He stuck his hand out, and they shook it out. “Nice to meet you, Tony. I’ve seen you on TV, but Lee didn’t tell me you knew each other,” he said, and glanced at Lee, who looked sheepish.

“Totally didn’t cross my mind, sorry about that Steve. But nevermind that, what brings you here today?” Lee turned to Tony.

“What, a guy can’t visit his friend? Who has contacts? With Nick Fury?” Lee groaned and walked over to the couch, and flopped down in it dramatically.

“What do you want access to  _ now, _ Tony,” he grumbled. Tony held his hands out, mock-surrender, and joined him on the couch. Steve decided to sit at the counter, and watch their exchange from afar.

“Lulu,  _ baby.  _ Come on.” Steve did  _ not _ like that, but he kept quiet. “I need Nick to give me access to a few satellites. Just a few! Not the whole grid!” Lee scoffed.

“What do you  _ really  _ want Tones. You and I both know you can hack the entire grid without detection, you don’t need to bother with asking Fury.” Tony rolled his eyes and wrapped his arm around Lee’s shoulders.

“Okay,  _ fine. _ I’m throwing a birthday party in two weeks and I want you there, but I also want to prank Fury, so I want  _ him _ there too. You happy?” 

Lee scrutinized Tony’s face for a moment. “Why the hell didn’t you say so? I’ll be there with Fury. Can Steve come too? He’s never been to one of your famous parties.” Tony turned to Steve, who smiled politely, and Tony got up from the couch.

“Sure, sure, you can come Cap. Maybe you can be the ice sculpture.” Steve’s polite smile faltered slightly, and Tony grinned and walked to the front door. Lee got up and followed, and opened the door for him.

“Well, I’m off. Lee, tell Nat to suck my dick.” Lee rolled his eyes.

“I’m not telling her that.” Tony laughed, and walked out. They said their goodbyes, and Lee shut the door. 

“So…” Lee started. Steve just looked at him expectantly.

“Lulu, huh?” Lee actually blushed, embarrassed.

“It’s not like that. I’ve known him since he was small, he called me that when he was little. I think he just said it to see if he’d get a rise out of you.” Steve made a little  _ hm _ sound, and Lee sighed. “Look, Steve, Tony’s… He’s a handful of a person. A lot has happened to him. Fury’s trying to recruit him into SHIELD, and while I don’t really want that to happen, well, Fury’s my supervisor. It’s his call, but it’s also Tony’s decision to say no.” Steve got up from the counter, and stood in front of Lee, a little closer than usual.

“Well then,  _ Lulu, _ ” he says, and Lee’s blush gets deeper. “It’s about time for the gym, don’t you think?”

They get ready, and run a lap around the park, then run to the gym. Steve’s punching bags are victims to his fists, the sand spewing out of them as he replaces each broken one. Lee watches through the windows of the small yoga studio, stretching his legs and following the instructor’s poses. He stretches into the arm-balancing split, his abdomen stretching, and his arms taking the weight of his legs. He looks up, and Steve’s at the doorway, staring intently at him. Lee feels a flush to his cheeks coming on, and follows the instructor, moving into an easier position, the downward dog. His flush only got deeper then, because he realized it gave Steve the perfect view of his ass, and  _ fuck is he staring, no he couldn’t be, shit shit shit. _ The instructor ended the session then, and the other people surrounding him picked up their things and slowly filed out of the studio. Lee grabbed his bag, and followed Steve out of the studio. Steve still hadn’t said anything, and Lee started to get nervous. They walked into the lobby of the gym, and Lee paused confusedly.

Fury was standing there, waiting for them.

“Good evening, sir. What can I do for you?” Steve asked, and Fury motioned for them to follow him outside, where a car was waiting. They piled into the backseat, Fury taking the passenger seat up front, and said nothing until the car left the parking lot.

“Remember when I said I’d have an assignment for you soon?” Steve nodded, and Fury handed him a manila file. “We’ve got an assignment for both of you, as well as Stark and a few others.” Steve frowned at Tony’s name, but didn't comment. He opened the envelope and began reading, and Lee leaned over to read bits of it as well.

The file contained specs and details about the Tesseract, the blue cube that was lost in the ocean before Steve… well. Steve frown deepened, reading the information. 

“Hydra's secret weapon?" Fury nodded.

“Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you. He thought what we think, the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something  the world sorely needs.” Steve put the pieces together, flipping through the rest of the file, and confirming his suspicions.   
“Who took it from you?” He asked.   
“He's called Loki. He's not from around here. There's a lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if you're in.”

Lee looked a little puzzled. “The… The Norse  _ god? That  _ Loki?”

Fury nodded. “Thor’s brother, from when we had the Mjolnir incident.”

Steve sighed. “Nothing surprises me anymore.”   
Fury scoffed. “Ten bucks says you're wrong. There's a debriefing package waiting for you back at Agent Leigh’s apartment.”   


They pull up to the apartment, and they get out of the car. Fury leans his head out of the window.  “Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?”  
Steve tucked the file under his arm. “You should have left it in the ocean.”

“If you’re in, then we’ll see you in twelve hours. 9am sharp, we’ll pick you up. Have Agent Leigh let me know.” They drove off. Steve turned around, and walked back into the apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These updates are kinda short atm, sorry about that! Two updates in one day tho! They'll be getting longer once i flesh out the fixed plot of avengers, we're just getting started.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The action begins. Lee and Steve get new digs. Loki shows up, and fucks some shit up.

Just like Fury said, the car that was to pick them up was waiting at 9am sharp, and Steve and Lee put their duffel bags in the trunk, and got in the car. The car took off, and they got to the military airport terminal by 9:45. The car stopped next to a huge, advanced-looking type of plane, and Lee explained that it was called a Quinjet. They grabbed their bags, and entered the cockpit.

Lee introduces an agent already on board, Phil Coulson, and Coulson looked at Steve in awe. Steve tried not to notice, but Lee's smug smile didn't help his embarrassment. Lee grabs a tablet, and loads up the briefing files for Steve. Steve takes the tablet, and takes a seat. The Quinjet takes off, and now they wait. Lee takes it his phone and plays a simple game, and Coulson checks in with the pilot. Steve's tablet replays the footage of Bruce Banner as the Hulk destroying a university as the army attacks him.

Coulson walks back into the cockpit and walks over to Steve.

“So, this Doctor Banner was trying to replicate the serum that was used on us?”

Coulson nodded. “A lot of people were. You were the world's first superheroes. Banner thought gamma radiation might hold the key to unlocking Erskine's original formula.”

In the video, the Hulk roars with fury as he slams a jeep apart.

“Didn't really go his way, did it?”  
He shook his head. “Not so much. When he's not that thing though, guy's like a Stephen Hawking.”

Steve looks confused, and turns to Lee. “Scientist, considered the smartest person to ever live. Currently still alive.” Steve nodded, grateful and turned back to Coulson.

“I gotta say, it's an honor to meet you, officially.”

Steve smiles politely at Coulson, and looked back at the tablet.

Coulson continued. “I… sort of met you, I mean, I watched you while you were sleeping.”

Steve frowns, awkward, and Lee tries his best to stifle a laugh. He stands up and hands the tablet back to Lee, who skims over the files himself. Steve turned and decided to watch out the front window behind the pilot, and Coulson followed.

“I mean, I was... I was present while you were unconscious from the ice. You know, it's really, it's just a... just a huge honor to have you on board.”

“Well, I hope I'm the man for the job.”  
Coulson nodded enthusiastically. “Oh, you are. Absolutely. Uh... we've made some modifications to the uniform. I had a little design input.”

Steve turned around and faced Coulson.  “The uniform? Aren't the stars and stripes a little... old fashioned?”

Coulson smiled warmly. “With everything that's happening, the things that are about to come to light, people might just need a little old fashioned.”

Steve smiles back, just as warm, and appreciated his sentiment. Lee looked up from the tablet.

“Brace yourself, Stevie. We're here.” The Quinjet hovered over a massive battleship, and landed on a designated space.

Coulson, Lee, and Steve walk down the ramp of the Quinjet, meeting up with Natasha.  
Coulson introduced them. “Agent Romanoff. Captain Rogers. You already know Agent Leigh.” Natasha nodded at them cordially, and turned to Coulson.

“Hi. They need you on the bridge. Face time.”

Coulson looked almost disappointed. “See you there.”

Agent Coulson walked away, leaving Lee and Steve with Natasha, walking towards the railing of the ship. Lee watched the waves breaking from the ship, and Natasha talked to Steve as they walked.

“There was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice. I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?”  
  
Steve looked confused. “Trading cards?”  
  
Natasha looked fondly amused. “They're vintage, he's very proud.” They walk past a small crowd of soldiers, headed elsewhere, and the crowd breaks as an extremely nervous-looking Bruce Banner wanders through the crowd. He apologizes to anyone he bumps into, and looks lost.  
  
Steve calls out to him, recognizing him from the file. “Dr. Banner.” Bruce looks up, and spots them. He takes the remaining steps to the three, and they all shake hands.

Bruce is polite, but Lee noticed he was  extremely tense. “Oh, yeah. Hi. They told me you'd be coming.”  
  
“Word is you can find the cube,” Steve says, and Bruce grimaces.  
  
“Is that the only word on me?”  
  
“Only word I care about.” Steve decided then that he liked Bruce. He was strong, going through he's gone through.  
  
Bruce looked sympathetic. “Must be strange for you, all of this. Both of you, actually. Nice to meet you, Agent Leigh.” Lee nodded politely to him.  
  
Natasha interrupted the conversation. “Gentlemen, you may wanna step inside in a minute. It's gonna get a little hard to breathe.” The entire ship began to shake, and  a mechanical whirring sound filled the air. Steve looked confused. Lee just waited, and braced himself on the railing.  
  
“Is this is a submarine?”

Bruce acted shocked. “Really? They wanted me in a submerged pressurized metal container?”

They both moved closer to the railing, at the edge, and Steve's mouth dropped open. Four huge lift fans, mounted on the side of the ship, lifts into the air, and begin to spin. The ship lurches as the entire thing takes off into the air, and Steve's grip on the railing causes finger-shaped dents. Lee laughed at his reaction and turned to Bruce.

Bruce smiles and laughs. “Oh, no. This is so much worse.”

 

°°°

 

Lee led the way through a mini tour for Steve and Bruce, pointing out the ship's private quarters for them  as well as the cafeteria, the labs, and finally the bridge, where they met up with Fury, Coulson, and Fury's right hand, an exemplary woman named Agent Maria Hill. The bridge was _huge,_ where  rows and rows of computers were being used by agents in front of a massive series of windows that showed a spectacular view of the cloud cover they were flying over. Lee joined Agent Hill and took a quick look over some schematics, while Steve walked up to Fury and slid him a $10 bill. Fury smirked and pocketed the bill, and greeted the group.

“Gentlemen,” he walks over to Bruce, and extends his hand. Bruce nervously accepted it, and continued gazing around the room. “Doctor, thank you for coming.”  
“Thanks for asking nicely. So, uh... how long am I staying?” He asks.  
“Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear.”  
“Where are you with that?” Fury turns to Coulson, who pulls up a map of satellites on a monitor, with a photo of Loki next to it. Natasha turns to another monitor of the same map, but a picture of another Agent was next to said map, the satellites searching for him instead.  
“We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cell phones, laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us.”

Natasha shook her head, disappointed. “That's still not gonna find them in time.”  
Bruce moved closer to the monitor, and Lee moved out  of the way. “You have to narrow the field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?”  
“How many are there?” Fury answered.  
Bruce began to type out coordinates of lab locations. “Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. I assume one of those labs Agent Leigh showed me is for me?”

Fury nods, and turns to Natasha. “Agent Romanoff, if you would please escort Dr. Banner to his laboratory.” Natasha nods and walks off, leading Banner down the hall.

Fury turns to Lee then. “I take it you've shown Mr. Rogers his room?” Lee nods. “Alright then, could you please escort him there and come back, for a debriefing?” Lee turns to Steve, who looks curious, and begins to make his way out of the bridge.

Steve follows, and doesn't say anything until he's sure they're out of earshot. “What do you think he wants to be debriefed about?”

Lee shrugged. “Probably you, no doubt. You're still my assignment, after all.” Steve paused, and Lee walked a few steps before noticing, and walked back to him.

“Was there… something else you were supposed to do in our assignment? Like gather intel on me? Or something?” Lee sighed.

“Not necessarily. Do you remember, when Tony came to my apartment, and I said Fury wanted to recruit him for SHIELD?” Steve nodded. “I have an inkling that it's something to do with that, but…. I don't know. Maybe something bigger.” Lee paused, thinking, then continued. “He didn't explicitly _tell_ me that I couldn't tell you, I just… didn't think I needed to say anything. He just asked me to watch you to make sure there wasn't something wrong, like the way some of us veteran soldiers are after wars.” Steve nodded again, and started walking again down the hallway. Lee followed, and they got to the hallway of their rooms.

“Okay, well, go get 'em, tiger.” Lee smiled warmly, then left, and Steve went into his room, and a bag with a hanger sticking out of it was on his bed. He opened the bag, and studied what was inside.

 

°°°

 

Lee made his way back to the bridge, and Fury was still waiting, watching the monitors for any changes.

Lee stood up straight. “Sir.”

Fury turned, and faced Lee. “Agent. Update on Mr. Rogers.”

“He seems fine, no known panic attacks or breakdowns. We haven’t exposed him to any obvious triggers, though. I’d expect the upcoming winter might pose some problems. He doesn’t mention the past, and he hasn’t asked about P-uh, former Agent Carter. I thought about taking him to see her, but…” Lee paused. He wasn’t actually sure why he didn’t take him to see her. He shrugged it off, and continued. “I think he’s fine to work, he’s adjusting well. We’ve been to some of the places he used to frequent before the war, and he took the changes well.” Fury took the assessment of Steve and processed it, thinking. He finally nodded, and began to slowly pace around the small space, still thinking. Finally, he turned back to Lee.

“Come with me.” He walked off the bridge, and walked down another hallway into what looked to be a simple office. He walked in, Lee following, and shut the door, closed the blinds, and settled into a chair behind a desk. “Now. You probably know what I’m going to ask for.”

“I told Steve. Sort of. About the Initiative.” Fury waited. “I mentioned it to him briefly, sort of, before, when Tony Stark visited my apartment yesterday. I just mentioned that Stark was considered to join SHIELD, possibly for a team. And I told him earlier that you had asked me to evaluate him, possibly about the same idea. He didn’t seem put off by it, which is good.”

Fury leaned back in his chair, and gestured towards the table. “Well? Do you think he’s a good candidate for the Avengers Initiative?”

Lee pursed his lips, and took a moment to think. “I think Steve is stubborn, and he doesn’t follow orders as well as he should. He’s a leader. If he’s going to be a part of this, then he’s going to want to do it _his_ way, not your way. He didn’t like Tony the moment he met him. I don’t think he likes Natasha. I have a feeling Clint, once we get him back, isn’t going to like how Steve leads. I definitely doubt Bruce will agree to join, especially because he is extremely inclined to distrust everyone, which is understandable. I think Steve would be a good fit, but the rest of the group might not fit _him.”_  It was a good observation, especially with how little Lee knew of Bruce, but Fury noted one issue.

“Only thing is, Steve needs to listen to what I want him to do. His morals might get in the way of what he’ll need to do.” Fury’s face darkened. “That’s where you will come in, to keep him in check, but how long will that last? I need to know your priorities, Leigh: when it comes down to it, will you choose Rogers, or will you choose the organization you swore fealty to?”

Lee paled, then fixed his composure while he thought. Scratch that, he _hadn’t thought of that scenario happening._ If Steve defects, where will he go? He’s been working for SHIELD since its creation, but will Steve change that? He didn’t bat an eye at betraying the Army to save Bucky, and Lee had followed him then, with no hesitation. That was decades ago, and he had loyalties _here._ Was he willing to break that, for Steve, if it came down to it?

He didn’t like the answer his heart provided.

“I’ll do my best to keep him in line. I can’t guarantee his loyalties, but I do know this: he wouldn’t defect unless SHIELD gave him a reason. Which is why I think you should tell him the real reason you need the Tesseract so badly.” Lee glared at Fury, accusingly. Fury kept his composure, his stance cool, and regarded the suggestion.

“I’ll consider it. You’ve fulfilled your assignment, I’ll put in the paperwork. Dismissed.” Lee nodded, and left the office, making his way to the labs. He wanted to get to know Bruce, get a better impression of him. Instead, he bumped into Coulson and Steve, who were viewing monitors of the search for Loki.

Coulson was handing him a small deck of cards, and Steve awkwardly but politely accepted them. Lee tried to stifle a laugh, but Steve noticed, and turned to Lee, looking grateful for the distraction. Lee grinned mischievously, and Steve’s grateful look disappeared, followed by a look of pure betrayal. He mouthed ‘don’t you dare,’ and Lee grinned wider, casually joining them.

“Say, Coulson,” he said, nonchalant, “what did I tell you about trying to seduce Steve? You gotta amp up the nostalgia! Those trading cards aren’t _old_ enough for him. I’ll find you some baseball cards of the Dodgers, that’ll get him to fall for you.” Both Steve and Coulson turned bright red, with Steve sputtering denial, and Coulson trying to deny he was _seducing_ Steve. Lee cackled, goal met, and Steve glared at him, still blushing, cheeks an adorable bright red. “Fine, fine, Dodgers cards wouldn’t work so much. Now, the Dodgers _themselves_ might do it, you could ask Tony Stark-” Steve wrapped Lee in a half-embrace, half-restraint, his hand over Lee’s mouth, and Lee laughed even harder, twisting out of his grasp.

Fury walks into the room just then, seeing Steve and Lee tangled in an embrace while Coulson embarrassedly laughs, before they all spot Fury and abruptly stop, straightening their poses and trying to act nonchalant. Fury ignores them, and walks to another agent’s work station. Steve and Lee glance at each other, and try not to melt into giggles again, and Coulson awkwardly joins Fury, joining in his conversation with the other Agent.

“Why must we get into trouble at the _worst_ of moments,” Steve whispers, crossing his arms and pretending to study a monitor in front of him.

“Well Stevie,” bit back Lee playfully, “you only get in trouble through your own decisions, smartass. I usually _save_ us from said trouble--” The agent that was speaking to Fury and Coulson leaned forward in his seat, and cut off Lee’s quiet banter.

“Heads up, we got a hit.” Steve and Lee rushed over to the agent’s station, and Coulson leaned closer to the monitor.

“Location?”

“Stuttgart, Germany. He’s not exactly hiding.”

Fury turned to Steve and Lee. “Captain, Agent, you’re up.” Steve nods, and they leave to their quarters to suit up. Fury turns back to the monitors, and begins barking orders to the other agents, springing them all into action.

 

०००

Loki stands before a crowd of citizens, where they all kneel in fear, with him looking on proudly, scepter in hand, full battle armor. An old man stands up, defiant and patriotic. Loki raises his scepter, and a blue light glows from it, preparing to shoot. Steve jumps from the Quinjet hidden above the crowd, and lands in front of the old man, just as the blue beam of light hits his shield and ricochets off, hitting Loki square in the chest. Loki goes flying, and Steev stands up, and makes his way towards where Loki fell on his ass. Lee jumps from the Quinjet, and lands nearby the crowd, and begins shouting evacuation orders, to get them out of the way into safety.

Lee joins Steve, and Steve gets a good look at Lee’s suit. The former suit of his was completely updated, the fabric a bit more skintight, and no more leather jacket. Lee wore an all-black suit, with new gloves, no longer as bulky as the first types, and the paneling on the entire suit was conformed to his frame. Lee crouched in a defensive position, in front of Steve, his gloves glowing an eerie green light, reflecting off his armor. He looked _imposing,_ his entire body radiating malice towards Loki, a physical shield in front of Steve. Steve didn’t stare, but rather _noticed_ , how fucking different Lee had become, and he realized then how much Lee was no longer Lee, but rather truly an Agent of SHIELD. Seventy years of training showed in just Lee’s protective stance, and Steve felt a small wave of pride and proudness towards Lee. Loki stared onwards, and stood up.

Loki greeted the two. “The soldier. A man out of time. And he brought his lackey!”

Steve shook his head. “I’m not the one who’s out of time.” The Quinjet above them turns a machine gun to Loki, and locks the target. Natasha’s voice comes out of an intercom.

“Drop the weapon and stand down, Loki.”

Loki spins and shoots a beam of blue energy at the Quinjet, and it maneuvers out of the way, just in time. Steve bursts into action, throwing his shield at Loki, who swats it away, and charges Steve. Lee tackles him, and Loki goes flying again, the energy from Lee’s armor deflecting Loki’s body away from him. Loki recovers quickly, charging Steve again, and they engage in a three-way brawl, Loki dodging both Steve and Lee’s fists easily, his limbs a blur as he strikes back, lightning fast. Natasha can’t get a new target lock, with Lee and Steve getting in the way of Loki, and she grunts in frustration.

“What’s the holdup?” Fury says over her comm, and she tightens her grip on the levers.

“The guy’s all over the place, I can’t get a lock-” Her reply was cut off by the Quinjet’s intercom suddenly blasting rock music, and a shiny red and gold body flies into view, repulsors propelling him forward into the square where Steve and Lee are still fighting Loki.

Tony’s voice rings in Natasha’s comm. “Agent Romanoff, did you miss me?” Natasha scoffed.

Tony lands a short distance away from the fight, and Tony immediately locked on Loki and waited for the right moment. Steve reeled his arm back to punch Loki, and Tony took the shot. Loki was blasted off his feet, and he lands hard on the ground, surrounded by Tony, Steve, and Lee, weapons raised, fists raised, and hands glowing.

“Your move, Reindeer Games,” Tony quipped. Loki put his hands up and surrendered, his armor fading away. “Good move.” Steve turned to Tony, eyes still on Loki.

“Mr. Stark.”

“Cap’n.” Lee hauled Loki up, already cuffing him in reinforced SHIELD handcuffs.

“Tony! What a coincidence.” Tony raised his faceplate, and broke into a huge grin.

“Agent Leigh! Small world. What are you doing here?” Tony nonchalantly gave Lee a firm handshake.

Lee jokingly shrugged. “Oh, you know, work stuff. Never a day off,” he grinned at Tony. Steve walked away, towards the landing Quinjet, and they followed with Loki in tow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all! I'm gonna try not to repeat the entire movie back at you in this arc, but some stuff is kinda necessary to get the plot going. I'm so excited to see how this goes!! I've got so many ideas with Steve's and Lee's relationship, and Bucky will come soon enough. Stay tuned! I also haven't forgotten about Chuckie, Lee's brother. He shall come soon enough, [insert mysterious laugh here].
> 
> I also just recently started a new job, so updates might not be as frequent as they have been, but I'll still at least post once a week! As usual, comment kudos subscribe! I'd love to hear how I'm doing with my writing and any criticisms or even just if you have any ideas about Lee or anything.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They nab Loki, things arent adding up, and something's happening between Lee and Steve, but neither of them are noticing because theyre idiots.

Thunder rumbles, and the rain on the windshield creates a loud white noise throughout the small ship. The Quinjet flies through the stormy sky, on its way back to the Helicarrier, driven by Natasha. Lee, Steve, and Tony are in the back, keeping watch over Loki. Fury speaks into Natasha’s comm.

“Said anything?”

“Not a word.”

Fury makes a frustrated sound. “Just get him here. We're low on time.”

With Loki tied up and cuffed to his seat, Lee, Tony and Steve watch from a distance, whispering. Lee notes something different about Loki, that he’d originally assumed. Loki didn’t look menacing anymore, without his armor and scepter. He looked sickly, exhausted. Loki stayed quiet, ignoring the three. Waiting. Lee kept his thoughts to himself, but something felt off. He didn’t seem stable, but not in a ‘psychopath’ kind of way. His eyes held a look that Lee had seen before, in Hydra agents, in kidnapped, traumatized innocents. Loki didn’t look like he was a villain, but rather, a  _ victim. _ Lee decided not to say anything until he knew more, knowing that it could easily be a front. Steve made a disapproving noise in the back of his throat.   
“I don't like it.” Tony turned to Steve.

“What? Rock of Ages giving up so easily?” Steve shook his head.

“I don't remember it being ever that easy. This guy packs a wallop.” Lee silently agreed, the off feeling getting stronger now that Steve confirmed it.

Tony looked Steve up and down, again, like he did in the apartment. “Still, you are pretty spry, for an older fellow. What's your thing? Pilates?”

Steve was thrown off, and he faced Tony head on this time. “What?” Lee mentally prepared himself.  _ Here we fucking go, really Tony? _

Tony continued. “It's like calisthenics. You might have missed a couple things, you know, doing time as a Capsicle.”

Steve looks at Tony, feeling a wave of malice coming from Tony. He considered a thought. “Fury didn't tell me he was calling you in.”

Tony scoffed. “Yeah, there's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you.” Lee glared at Tony, and mentally tried to tell him to knock it off. Tony smiled back, defiant and playful, getting the message clearly. “And Lee, for that matter.” Steve turned to Lee, confusion on his face, and Lee shook his head, dismissing Tony's comment. Loki watched the exchange between the three, and stayed quiet. 

Thunder rumbles, too loud for comfort, and lightning nearly strikes the jet, making it shake violently. Lee grabs onto Steve on instinct, while Steve grabs the wall, then they both notice Lee clinging to Steve and look embarrassed. Tony watches the moment quietly, while gripping a handrail attached to the floor and the ceiling. Loki tries to keep himself upright, gripping his seatbelt with his cuffed hands. Natasha tries to keep the jet steady.

“Where's this coming from?” She wonders out loud, and thunder rumbles again. Loki stares out the window, and begins to look nervous.

Steve notices Loki's expression. “What's the matter? Scared of a little lightning?” Lee frowned, and watched Loki, who was beginning to look afraid.

“I'm not overly fond of what follows,” he replied, voice full of… not fear, but rather fearful anticipation, Lee noted. Lee took that as a warning, and engaged his armor, just in case. Steve noticed his actions, and followed suit, tensing in preparation.

Thunder cracks, right at the jet, and lightning flashes right in front of the windows, and a crunching sound rings through the air as the ramp of the jet is forced open, by a huge figure.

Nobody has any time to react before a huge man in a red cape and armor grab Loki and rip him out of his binds in his seat, and leaping out of the Quinjet. 

Tony looks dumbfounded at the gaping hole in the Quinjet. “Now there's that guy.”

Natasha grimaced. “Another Asgardian?”

Steve turned to Lee and Tony. “Think the guy's a friendly?”

Tony shook his head. “Doesn't matter. If he frees Loki or kills him, the Tesseract's lost.”

Tony turns and gets ready to jump off the jet to chase after Loki and his… kidnapper? Steve tries to stop him, hand on Tony's shoulder.

“Stark, we need a plan of attack!”

“I have a plan. Attack.” Tony springs into action and follows them out, repulsors bursting into flight. Steve and Lee move to the front with Natasha, where they watch the man with Loki, Tony trailing a bit behind. Steve moves back into the back, grabbing a parachute pack. Lee follows him and grabs one as well, but Steve tries to stop Lee as well.

“It's gonna get ugly, Lee, I don't know what's waiting for us with those three.” Lee glared and smacked Steve upside the head, and Steve winced, not expecting that.

“Idiot. As if I'd let you go down there alone,” he scoffed, and resumed strapping into the parachute pack. “Besides,” he continued, “it's not like we haven't done this before, and I saved your ass then too.” 

Steve doesn't reply, instead choosing that time to jump out. Lee rolls his eyes and waits a couple seconds before following him, into the storm.

  
  


°°°

  
  


Lee and Steve land near the wreckage of Tony and the other guy's fight, trees fallen and ground torn up. They climbed the wreckage until they got to the peak, where below them Tony and the other guy were fighting viciously, Tony blasting energy pulses and Thor throwing what looked to be a giant hammer. Steve interrupted their fight, throwing his shield at them. It ricocheted off both their chests, and they stopped and turned to face Steve.

“That's enough!” He jumped down to their level, Lee in tow. “Now, I don't know who you are or what you plan on doing here.”

The other guy boomed his answer. “I am Thor, of Asgard, and I've come here to put an end to Loki's schemes!”   
Steve tried to reason. “Then prove it! Put the hammer down.” Lee saw Tony's expression, and immediately crouched into a defensive position in front of Steve, gloves already glowing at the ready.

“Steve-”

Tony frantically tried to stop him. “Um, yeah, no! Bad call! He loves his hammer!”

Thor swung and hit Tony in the face with the hammer, sending  him flying. He turned back to Steve, and Lee tensed, settling harder into defensive position. His whole body radiated waves of angry defense.   
“You want me to put the hammer down?” 

Thor leaps high into the air, raising his hammer above his head, and Steve raises the shield, crouching down behind it, Lee leaping to meet with Thor's body midair. Lee's  gloves shot pulses of energy, electrical energy crackling through the atmosphere, and Thor’s hammer impacted hard against Steve's vibranium shield, causing a shockwave to ripple through the air,  blasting everything in its path. Lee opened his eyes to find himself about a hundred feet away, along with Steve and Thor lying on the ground adjacent to each other at the impact site. Steve got up, and Tony finally joined them. Thor got up from his spot on the ground, and watched Lee jog up to the group.    


Steve looked around the group. “Are we done here?”

Lee calls for Natasha back in the Quinjet.

  
  


°°°

  
  


Lee and the group gather on the bridge, watching a set of monitors showing Loki being interrogated by Fury. Steve paces the room, listening to the conversation and analyzing the situation. Thor listens as well, but stands at a large round table, looking distraught. The screen goes black, and Lee meets Loki’s eyes as he looks into one of the surveillance cameras, a menacing smile on his face. He was back to the cool villain, rather than the pained victim Lee had noticed before.

Bruce breaks the silence. “He really grows on you, doesn't he?”   
Steve looks up, still pacing, and walks over to Thor. “Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?”

Thor snaps out of his quiet trance, and turns to Steve. “He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract.”   
Steve looked incredulous. “An army? From outer space?” He asked, disbelieving.

Bruce ignored him. “So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for.”

Thor turned back to Bruce, shock on his features. “Selvig?”

Bruce misread his question. “He's an astrophysicist.”   
Thor looked devastated, his shoulders sinking. “He's a friend.”   
Natasha put a hand on his shoulder in comfort. “Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours.” Lee glanced at Natasha, and found a similar look of distraught that Thor had held earlier. Steve began pacing again, thinking.

“I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here.” Lee started to feel trapped in the room, with Steve pacing like a caged panther, and Thor seeming to make himself somehow look smaller and smaller as he closed in on himself in sorrow. Lee decided to try to remedy that with Steve, and he snagged Steve’s shoulder as he paced past Lee. Steve stopped and faced Lee, and Lee held onto his arm for a moment, quiet expression calming Steve. Steve relaxed a bit, and stood next to Lee at the table again. Steve gave Lee a warm look and a small smile, and Lee gave him a sweeter smile, then turned back to the group, feeling better now that Steve wasn’t so keyed up. Natasha met Lee’s eyes, questioning, and Lee shook his head slightly.  _ Can’t talk about this right now.  _

Bruce tapped a pen against his lip in thought. “I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him.” Lee frowned, thinking about the victim he saw before, again. Thor straightened his posture, turning to Bruce.   
“Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother,” he snapped, and the room immediately tensed up a notch.    


“He killed eighty people in two days,” Natasha pointed out, and Thor immediately looked embarrassed.    
“...He's adopted.”

Bruce continued to ignore everyone, thinking out loud, “Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?”

“It's a stabilizing agent.” Tony walked in, Coulson in tow. He turned to Thor, nonchalant, “No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing.” He turned back to the rest of the group. “Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants.” Tony looked around the room, watching the crew, and then staring at the monitors spread out at Fury’s station. He closed one eye, then covered it with his hand, and looked around, struggling to see everything at once. “How does Fury do this?”

Agent Hill answers, standing a few feet away at her own station. “He turns.”

Tony looks around the monitors some more, before turning off a monitor to the right of him, and Lee smiled.  _ Ever the improving mechanic. _ Tony turned back to the group. “Well, that sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube.”

Agent Hill finally turned to Tony, looking snarky. “When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?”

Tony began to wander about the space, poking at different monitors and keyboards. “Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?” Lee rolled his eyes, and Tony caught it, grinning. He winked, and Steve chose to ignore it.   


“Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?”

Bruce pointed into the air with his pen. “He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier.” Lee stood there and didn’t understand a word that was said, but pretended to understand anyways.

Tony caught the thread and continued it. “Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect.” Now Steve looked confused, and Natasha tried to hide a smug smile.

“Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet,” Bruce said, turning towards Tony, smiling.

Tony feigned exasperation. “Finally, someone who speaks English.”   
“Is that what just happened?” Steve comments, and Lee elbows him. Steve gives Lee a small smile, and Lee sticks his tongue out at him, earning a quiet chuckle from Steve.   


Tony and Bruce shake hands, Tony’s smile lilting into flirty territory, and Lee watched Bruce return the smile, with a warmer, respectful one.  
Tony kept the smile going. “It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. You're work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.” Bruce blushed, then looked down, embarrassed.   


“Thanks.”

Fury walks in at that moment, trailed by two other agents. “Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him.”

“Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon,” Steve suggested. Fury gave Lee a look, and half-dismissed the idea. Lee, behind Steve, shook his head at Fury, then gave him a pointed look.   
Fury ignored Lee. “I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys.”   
Tony turned back to Bruce, playful. “Shall we play, doctor?”   
Bruce regarded his mischievous look and nodded, smiling again. “Let's play some.”

Steve and Lee walked into the lab just as Tony poked Bruce with a miniature electrical prod, shocking him mildly. Lee winced, but settled into a seat at one of the tables. 

_ “OW!”  _  Tony scrutinizes Bruce closely.

“Nothing?” Steve’s temper flared up then, hot and burning.

“Are you  _ nuts?” _ Tony ignored him. Lee sighed, and leaned onto the table, watching.  _ He we fuckin’ go again. _

“You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?” The last bit earned a laugh from Bruce, and he shook his head.   
“Is  _ everything  _ a joke to you?” Steve snapped.   


“Funny things are.”   
Steve glared at Tony. “Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny.” He turned to Bruce briefly, apologetic. “No offense, doctor.”   


Bruce shrugged it off. “No, it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things.”   
Lee sighed again, louder. “Guys, focus on the issue.”

Tony turned to Lee this time. “You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables.”   
Steve thought a moment. “You think Fury's hiding something?”   
Tony looked like it was obvious. “He's a spy. Captain, he's  _ the  _ spy. His secrets have secrets.” 

“Doctor? What do you think?” Steve asked Bruce. Bruce stayed quiet, thinking.

“Earlier… Loki's jab at Fury about the cube.”

Steve nodded. “I heard it.”   
Bruce pointed to Tony. “Well, I think that was meant for you.”   
“The Stark Tower? In New York?” Lee piped up.   
Bruce nodded, and moved to explain. “It's powered by Stark Reactors, a self-sustaining energy source.” He turned to Tony this time. “That building will run itself for what, a year?”   
“That's just the prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now,” Tony bragged, and Lee rolled his eyes.   
Bruce took his bragging in stride. “So, why didn't SHIELD bring you in on the Tesseract project? I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?”   
Tony shrugged. “I should probably look into that once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files.”   
Steve took a mental double-take. “I'm sorry, did you say...?” Lee tried to act nonchalant, but he started to feel nervous.   
“Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide.”  _ Fuck. _ Lee swallowed hard, but none of the other men noticed.   
It was Steve’s turn to look snarky. “Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?”   
“An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically, not possible.”   
Bruce turned to Steve. “Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?”

Steve’s anger broke, and he shook his head. He gave Lee a look, and Lee nodded. Steve left the lab, headed who knows where.

Lee immediately turned on Tony. Tony held his hands up in mock surrender, and turned back to the monitors. Bruce gave Lee a sympathetic look, and Lee sighed again. “Well, let me know if you find anything you think I don’t know.”

“You got it, Agent.” Lee left the lab too, going to look for Steve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wink wink
> 
> Whats the wink for? OH....... U kno ;)


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get sweet, but then shit hits the fan. If you've seen the Avengers then you should know what's happening.

Lee finds Steve in  a weapons hangar, pacing furiously. He quietly shut the door, and joined him, sitting on a box of ammunition. Steve didn’t notice, or chose to ignore him, pacing still.

“Tony and Bruce are right.” Steve startles, and stops pacing.

“What?”

“Fury’s hiding something. He’s a fucking  _ spy,  _ of course he is. But it’s not as corrupt as your suspicions think. He does want to work on clean energy, but it goes deeper than that. SHIELD has a lot of secrets, Steve.  _ I  _ have secrets, I…” Steve sat down next to him on the crate, shoulders touching.

“Forget SHIELD. What’s going on, Lee?” Lee turned to face him, meeting his eyes full of concern. “You can tell me anything, it stays between us, Lee. You know that.” Lee closed his eyes, energy dissipating from him.

“It’s not that easy, Stevie.” Steve hesitated at first, but grabbed Lee’s hand, wrapping it up in his own.

“Whatever it is, is it hurting you?” Lee shook his head. “Are you being forced into it?” Another head shake. “Are you allowed to tell me?” Lee paused, then nodded.

“It’s just… it’s a lot happening. I don’t think it’s the right time to say anything, either, after all, it happened decades ago, it’s not like it’s going to change now,” Lee added bitterly. Steve thought a moment, quiet, looking at his hand in Lee’s, warm and comforting. He turned to Lee, and took his other hand, and cupped Lee’s cheek, staring into his eyes, soft. Lee looked small, like  _ before _ , and he gave Steve a small smile. Steve stared, drinking in Lee’s features, until his eyes began to unfocus, but he stopped, a box catching in his eyesight a few feet away.

“I’m sorry, but what’s… this?” He left Lee’s side, and kneeled down, opening the box.

  
  


०००

  
  


Lee walked into the lab, without Steve, still rattled by Steve’s advances but also what they found in the weapons vault. He knew about it, but he didn’t dare say a word. Tony and Bruce were pouring themselves over a monitor, viewing files of some sort.

“What’s that?” Lee asked, and Bruce jumped, Tony putting a hand on Bruce’s shoulder in reflex. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” Tony looked at Lee, and opened his mouth to reply, but the lab doors opened before he could.

Fury walks in, glaring at the three. He looked, well, furious, and Lee did  _ not  _ like the immediate change of atmosphere in the room. “What are you doing, Mr. Stark?” He asked angrily, and Tony turned around, shoulders up, determined look on his face. Lee knew that look. He’d found something.

“I’ve kind of been wondering the same thing about you.” Fury dismissed his comment with a wave of his hand.

“You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract.”   


Bruce spoke up. “We are. The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile.”

“And you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss.” Tony pointed to the monitor they’d been viewing when Lee walked in. “What is Phase 2?”

Suddenly, Steve drops a HYDRA assault rifle on the table, causing Fury, Bruce and Tony to turn around. Lee saw the raw anger on his face, and turned to Fury, to see his reaction.

“Phase 2 is SHIELD using the cube to make weapons.” Steve turned to Tony. “Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow.”

Fury feigned nervousness. “Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're-” Tony interrupted, turning the monitor towards the group.

“I'm sorry, Nick.” The monitor showed plans of the weapons, schematics detailing every idea they’d had for the Tesseract. Tony paused a moment. “Why did you lie to us? To me? You know I’d never agree to this.”   
  
Steve looked disappointed. “I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit.”

Fury composed himself, then turned to Steve. “Seems like Agent Leigh hasn’t told you everything, either.” All eyes turned to Lee, who looked both nauseous and livid, glaring at Fury.

“My secrets have nothing to do with this,” he spat at Fury. “Don’t try to manipulate the situation to me.  _ You’re  _ the Director, this is your responsibility!” Steve looked even angrier.

“Lee’s right. Even if he knew about the weapons,  _ you _ are the one doing the planning. He has his own loyalties.” Lee felt a tiny bit of relief that Steve was backing him up, but  _ fuck _ he’s going to have to explain some things later, he bet.

At that moment, Thor and Natasha walk into the lab. Natasha keeps her eyes right on Bruce. The tension in the room spiked significantly. “You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?” Bruce shook his head, glaring at Natasha.

“I  _ was _ in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed. I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy. I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction.”

Fury pointed to Thor. “Because of him.”

  
Thor looked confused. “Me?”   
  
“Last year Earth had a visitor from another planet, who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned.”   
  
Thor’s shoulders raised, defensive. “My people want nothing but peace with your planet.”   
  
Fury cut back, on the offense. “But you're not the only people out there, are you? And, you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled.”   
  
“Like you controlled the cube?” Steve snapped.   
  
Thor looked accusingly at Fury. “Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war.”   
  
Lee sent Steve a worrying look. “A higher form?”   


Fury’s face now held a look of desperation. “You forced our hand. We had to come up with something.”   
  
Tony scoffed. “Nuclear deterrent. That always calms everything right down, totally.”

Fury turned to Tony, voice sharp. “Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?”   


The room escalates into verbal assaults, and Lee just stays quiet, watching the entire thing. Fury deserved this, the Director being battered on all sides. Lee just watched, quietly amused that he got to watch them all force Fury down a notch.

The computer beeps, chatter immediately stopping. They all turn to the monitor, and Tony rushes to it. “We got it!” Bruce walks over to the monitor, looking over Tony’s shoulder as he furiously types.

Thor spoke up. “Located the Tesseract?” Tony nods. “The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it.” Tony ignores him and walks towards the lab doors, leaving. Steve grabs his arm.

“You're not going alone!” Tony glared at him, and wrenched his arm out of Steve’s grasp.

“You gonna stop me?” The two glared at each other, chests puffed.   
  
At that moment Bruce, who's looking at the monitor, notices something about the Tesseract. “Guys-” The entire room shakes, an explosion sounding somewhere on the Helicarrier. Everyone is thrown in every direction. Lee, Steve, Fury, Thor and Tony are thrown across the room, while Natasha and Bruce fell down into the lower equipment room. Steve helps Tony up and out of the lab, Lee following.

Fury sits up, clutching his ribs.

Lee, Tony and Steve run through a dim, debris filled hall.

Tony calls out towards them, sprinting down another hallway. “Jarvis says an engine is completely down. Find engine three. I'll meet you there!”

“I know the way, this way!” Lee sprinted forward, leading the way. The ran down hallways until they found the right place, the door wedged shut, window showing debris propped against it on the other side. Steve pushed with all his strength, and the door broke open.    


Steve pressed a button on his earpiece. “Stark, we’re here!”   
  
Tony’s voice sounded in their ears. “Good. Let’s see what we got.” Tony flew in, in his suit, and surveyed the damage. ”I gotta get this super conducting cooling system back online before I can access the rotors and work on dislodging the debris.” Tony begins pulling on the stuck rotors, and he calls out to Steve and Lee. “I need you to get to that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position.”

Tony flies into giant cooling conductors. Steve jumps over to the other side of the broken railing, and gets himself to the control panel and opens it up. Lee follows, engaging his armor and watching his back. He spoke up after a moment. “What's it look like in there?”   
  
Steve stared at it all, making zero sense of any of it. “It seems to run on some form of electricity.”   
  
“Well, you're not wrong.” Lee scoffed and turned to the paneling.

“Move, watch my back.” Steve awkwardly shoved out the way, lifting his shield. “Tony, the relays are intact, there’s minimal damage.”

Tony blasts his repulsors at broken debris off the turbine engine. “Even if I clear the rotors, this thing won't re-engage without a jump. I'm gonna have to get in there and push.”   
  
“Well if that thing gets up to speed, you'll get shredded!”   
  
“Aww, you care. Stay in the control unit and reverse polarity long enough to disengage magn-”

“Speak English!”

“I got it, Steve, shut up!” Lee huffed in frustration. “Continue, Tony.”   


“See that red lever? It'll slow the rotors down long enough for me to get out. Stand by it, wait for my word.” Steve looks over at the other side, where they originally were before jumping to the panel. He sees the red lever and jumps towards it. Lee followed again. IRON MAN laser cuts a big piece of broken metal. He then JUMPS on it, relieving the rotors. 

“Steve, you-” On the other side, men enter the broken engine room, guns in hand. Steve and Lee looked down, and the men noticed them, beginning to shoot at them and throw grenades. Lee blocked the grenades, throwing them back with his armor, and Steve jumped to the other railing and down with the attackers. Steve yanks a gun out of one of the attacker’s hands, and grabs another from a fallen one, and tosses one up to Lee. Lee grabs it, and starts shooting, hitting his targets accurately. Tony begins to push the rotor using the rockets from his boots. The rotors start propelling faster and faster as Tony’s rocket boosters get more and more bright. On the other side, Steve loses the upper hand and slides off the railing, but grabs onto a loose cable, dangling.

“Lee, assistance!” Lee jumps down, trying to reach Steve, flashes of Bucky running through his mind. Tony continuously spins Engine 3, giving it all he has. Finally, the Helicarrier rights itself, the engine back to running properly.   


Tony calls out. “Cap, I need the lever!”

Lee answers, still struggling to help Steve. “We need a minute here!”

“Lever. Now!” Tony lets go of the rotors, and they spin by themselves, spinning faster than Tony can fly, Tony getting caught up into one of the rotors. Lee uses the last bit of his strength to pull up Steve, and they crawl back over onto the floor, breath coming out in gasps.

“Tony, can you hear me? I’m pulling the lever!” Lee grips the red lever, and shoves it down. A vent opens up from engine 3, and Tony falls out. Tony flies over to the two, and collapsed on the floor, all three of them exhausted. Fury’s voice sounded over their earpieces.

“Agent Coulson is down.”

Another agent spoke up, alerting Fury. “Paramedics are on their way.”

Steve and Tony looked at each other. Lee just watched the sky, outside the gaping hole of the engine room.

“They're here."   


Nobody spoke, waiting for the news.

“They called it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took me a week to work over because I got stuck but now that it's done I feel better. Expect the next chapter sooner rather than later!
> 
> Y'all know the drill!


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The action starts, Loki's doing his shit, and honestly, who's the real leader here?

Fury gathers Lee, Tony, and Steve back into the briefing room, where everyone there looked as if in a daze. A look of numb shock is on their devastated faces, and Lee quietly sat down.   
  
“These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. Guess he never did get you to sign them.” Fury throws Coulson's Captain America trading cards on the table towards Steve. Steve picks them up, and they’re stained with blood. Fury turned to the entire group. “We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming.” He paused a moment. “Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Agent Leigh and Stark knows this, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes.” Tony leaves, Fury watching him go. “Well, it's an old fashioned notion.”   
  
Steve and Lee found Tony staring at the empty cell container, which once held Loki. He stands there, not saying a word.   


Steve finally broke the silence. “I'm sorry. He seemed like a good man.”   


Tony closed his eyes. “He was an idiot.”   
  
“Why? For believing?”   
  
“For taking on Loki alone.” Lee walked over and put a hand on Tony’s shoulder.   
  
“He was doing his job.”   
  
“He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have…”   
  
Lee spoke up this time. “Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony.” Tony rolled his eyes, sarcastic.   
  
“Right. How did that work for him?”   
  
Steve walked closer. “Is this the first time you've lost a soldier?”   
  
Tony turned around sharply. “ _ WE ARE NOT SOLDIERS! _ I am  _ not  _ under Fury’s command!”   
  
“Neither am I! Not anymore. He's got the same blood on his hands as Loki does. Right now we've got to put that aside and get this done.” Steve began pacing. “Now Loki needs a power source, if we can put together a list…”   
  
Tony stared at the wall, blood still staining it. “He made it personal.”   
  
Steve’s voice sounded firmer, more authoritative. “That's not the point-” Lee interrupted him, catching on to Tony.

“No, Steve, I think that  _ is  _ the point.”   
  
Lee and Tony stared at each other, connecting the dots. “That's Loki's point. He hit us all right where we live. Why?” Tony asked.   
  
“To tear us apart?” Steve started to feel lost, with Lee and Tony formulating faster than him.   
  
Tony started pacing around the room himself. “He had to conquer his greed, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us and he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience.”   


“Right, I caught his act at Stuttengard.”

“Stuttgart,” Lee corrected.  
“Yeah. That's just a preview, this is opening night. Loki's a full-tilt diva. He wants flowers, he wants parades, he wants a monument built in the skies with his name plastered…” Tony paused, everything clicking into place in his mind. “ _Sonofabitch_!”

  
  


०००

  
  


Lee walks into Natasha’s quarters, followed by Steve, and Natasha was sitting at a table, looking at paperwork. She looked up, surprised, and Steve gestured for her to follow them. “Time to go.”   


Natasha got up from her seat. “Go where?”   
  
“I'll tell you on the way. Can you fly one of those jets?” Clint walks out of the bathroom attached to the quarters.

“I can.” Steve looks at Natasha and she nods her head. Clint’s on their side. Steve turns to Clint.

“You got a suit?” Clint nodded. “Then suit up.”   
  
  


०००

Tony met the team at Stark Tower, where Loki had already set up his energy device, with Selvig’s help. In the Quinjet, Steve turned to Lee. 

“I’m not letting Stark go in there alone. Lee, join him, and watch his back. I don’t trust this.” Lee nodded, and prepared for a landing on Tony’s penthouse balcony.

Tony spoke up, hovering outside the Quinjet. “Lee knows the passcodes, he’s been in here before. I can take care of this, you guys prepare for the fallout for  _ after  _ I take care of this.” Lee jumped off the Quinjet, landing in a roll on Tony’s balcony, while Tony landed next to him. The Quinjet flies off, to lower levels, monitoring the area.

Selvig turns, noticing the two on the balcony. He held the Tesseract in his hands, preparing to put it into the energy machine, whatever it’s called. Lee engaged his armor, gloves buzzing.

“Shut it down, Dr. Selvig,” Tony called out. Selvig looked like a true mad scientist, eyes glowing and wild, smile on his face.

“It's too late! It can't stop now. He wants to show us something! A new universe.”   
  
“Okay.” Tony aims his hands toward the machine and fires. The energy from his boosters shatters with a deafening  _ crack _ . Selvig fell backwards, fumbling. The machine was fine, not even a scratch. Tony cursed, and Jarvis sounded through this balcony.   
  
“The barrier is pure energy. It's unbreachable.”   
  
Tony unsuits himself, and Loki walks into view. Loki regards them both, and Lee crouches in a defensive stance. Tony walks past him, walking towards the penthouse, so Lee follows, every muscle in his body tense.

“Keep your guard up, Tony,” Lee murmured, and Tony nodded.  
Loki walks in, holding the scepter. Tony casually walks down the steps, towards the bar. Lee circled the room, watching Loki like a hawk.   
  
“Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity,” Loki said, amused.   
  
Tony began to pour himself a drink. “Uh...actually, I'm planning to threaten you. Lee, you want anything? No?”   
  
“You should have left your armor on for that.”   
  
Tony shrugged. “Yeah, it's seen a bit of mileage. You've got the blue stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?”   
  
“Stalling me won't change anything,” Loki said, now watching Lee. Lee met his eyes, that were a cold blue, and cocked an eyebrow.   
  
Tony stayed casual, taking a sip of his drink. “No, no, no! Threatening. No drink? You sure? I'm having one.”   
  
“The Chitauri are coming, nothing will change that. What have I to fear?”

Lee spoke up. “You’re not scared of us. The only time I’ve seen you get out of your composure is when Thor was around. So why bring fear into it? What did your brother do to make you turn to this?” Loki looked a little nervous, with his motivations hit so close.

“My  _ brother _ ,” he spat, “has nothing to do with this.”

“Then who is it?” Lee pressed. “There’s another party in this. You’re just the figurehead, aren’t you?” Tony piped up.

“I noticed that, before, with Thor. He seems naively faithful to you. I also read up a little on Norse gods, where’s Odin?” Loki broke then, screaming in rage, and he went to charge Tony. Lee blocked him, sending a huge volt of electricity into Loki’s body, electrifying him. Loki convulsed, but still struggled against Lee, so he body-slammed him onto the floor, his head cracking the marble floor.

“Lee, that’s  _ my floor! Dude!”  _

“Sorry, Tones.” Lee got up, and Loki’s unconscious body laid there, on the floor. Lee grabbed the scepter from Loki’s limp hand, and cuffed him. “I doubt that’s going to hold him.”

Tony walked over to Loki’s limp body. “Call Steve, get them in here. When he wakes up we’ll be ready.”

  
  


०००

  
  


Loki opened his eyes, strapped to a chair, cuffed, and wrapped in electrical cables. Lee held the ends of the cables in his hands, while Steve stood in front of Loki, Tony to his left, repulsors engaged, and Clint and Natasha on Steve’s right, arrow nocked and fists ready, respectively. Thor clapped his hands on Loki’s shoulders, and leaned in close.

“Hello, brother.”

Loki began to struggle then, and Lee engaged his gloves, sending a small wave of energy through the cables wrapped around Loki, effectively shocking him. He cried out in pain, and Thor winced. 

“You make a wrong move, Agent Leigh here zaps you,” Tony says. “Tell us the truth.”

“Loki, how do we destroy your machine.” Steve spoke plainly and full of authority. 

“You can’t.” More cries of pain. Lee shocked him for about five seconds, then stopped. Loki’s breath came out hard through his clenched teeth.

“If you can’t cooperate then we can’t help you. Answer my question.”

“I can’t.”

“Lee.” He turned it up a notch, shocking him for five seconds only. Loki’s eyes formed tears, and he struggled not to cry out.

“I c-can’t!” Lee stopped, stared into those glowing blue eyes. Something wasn’t right.

“Thor, what color are Loki’s eyes normally?” Thor snapped his head over to Lee’s in confusion.

“Why, green. Why do you ask?”

“They’re blue now, but when I was shocking him, they flickered to green.” Thor looked extremely interested then, turning to face Loki. He turned his head this way and that, and confirmed it.

“Enough,” Steve interrupted. “Again. Loki.”

“I  _ can’t!” _

Steve gave Lee a quick look. Lee turned the power up two more notches, then shocked Loki again. Loki screamed, eyes blazing green, and Lee didn’t stop this time. His chest clenched in tension, hearing Loki scream, but he couldn’t stop, not yet.

“Lee, enough. Lee.  _ LEE.” _ Lee finally stopped, and Loki slumped forward, curling into himself. He started making weird noises, almost like a gurgling sound.

Thor got closer. “Loki-” Loki’s head flew upwards, eyes blazing blue, and he screamed again, eyes flickering from blue to green back to blue.

“He’s fighting it! Come on, Loki, snap out of it!” Lee kneeled down to his eye level, and tried to think of a way to help.

Steve put a hand on his shoulder. “Move.”

Lee scrambled out of the way, and Steve reeled his arm back, and socked Loki right in the face. Loki’s head flew backwards, where he finally stilled.

Everything stopped, nobody moved. They waited a moment, until Loki’s head lifted up, and he opened his eyes. 

Green.

Thor let out a cheer, which startled the whole room, including Loki, who looked  _ terrified _ , back to the face of a victim like Lee had seen before.

“Please don’t hurt me anymore! I’ve been controlled by another, it’s  _ me,  _ I’m not doing this!” Loki’s breath rushed out, and he scrambled to explain himself.

Steve silenced him with a hand. “How do we know this isn’t a trick?”

“Selvig can stop it, the army is coming! Hurry!” Lee’d forgotten about Selvig, who was still working on the machine outside. Steve turned towards the balcony, and Tony followed, before they heard a huge  _ BOOM _ . They all ran outside, where the machine had opened a huge portal, and a huge pillar of energy was shooting into the air, holding it open.

Chitauri soldiers riding what looked like flying chariots flew out of the hole in the sky, and chaos erupted. Steve sprinted with Natasha to the Quinjet, taking off, and already shooting at the soldiers flying through the air. Lee ran back inside, where Thor still held on to Loki, and rushed up to Loki, in his face.

“How do we stop them!” Loki sputtered and stumbled over his words. “Loki, we need to stop them!  _ How do we stop them!” _

“I-I, we have to shut down the portal! Selvig can do it!” He repeated, and Lee rushed back to the balcony, where Selvig was being held up by his shirt, Tony in his suit easily holding him up.

Lee turned to Clint. “How did Nat get you out of Loki’s control?”

Clint looked almost smug. “Cranial recalibration.”

“Meaning?”

“He got hit in the head really hard,” Tony replied, and reeled his fist back. He punched Selvig full on in the face, knocking him out cold.

“ _ TONY, we needed him conscious!” _ Lee yelled, and marched over to him, still holding Selvig’s now limp body up. “Set him down,” he ordered, and Tony set him down onto the floor.

Lee engaged his gloves, and gently pressed a finger into Selvig’s neck, and sent out a light shock. Selvig gasped and shot up in, pain, eyes no longer blue. “Dr. Selvig, sir, are you aware- sir-” 

“I’m free! Thank you, young man, we must end this, here, come with me.” Lee helped Selvig get up, and they rushed to the machine. Lee turned back to Clint and Tony.

“Alright, we know the plan. Clint, Tony, get on the Quinjet, try to keep civilians safe. Keep me updated, we’ll try to end this.” He pressed a button on his comm. “Steve, we got Selvig back, we’re getting this machine destroyed as soon as we con. Thor,” he called out into the comm. “Keep Loki tied up, try to question him more. Don’t. Let him.  _ Get away. _ ”

“Got it.”

“Aye.”

“Right,” he said, and turned back to Selvig and his machine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got three night shifts coming up so I tried to take this weekend to write while I could. Don't worry, I'm not going to dwell on the fight too long, I hate rehashing what we already know so I'm gonna speedrun it. Stay tuned!


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lee gets shit done, The Avengers breaks up, then forms back, and Lee and Steve can't take a hint.

Lee hovers behind Selvig, who is furiously typing at an attached keyboard. He keeps the comm open, listening to the team chatter between each other, pinpointing what was happening. Bruce had somehow made it down to the front line, and was currently destroying things as the Hulk, smashing Chitauri soldiers and causing mayhem. Tony’s voice crackled into the comms, urgent.

“Guys, we got a government missile going rogue towards the city.”

“But there’s civilians! Do they think they’re going to evacuate in time?!” Lee couldn’t believe his ears.

“I don’t think so. I’m going in to intercept. Any luck on the portal closing?”

Lee turned to Selvig. “What’s our status?”

“I can close it, but we need the scepter.” Lee runs back inside the Stark tower, where Thor and Loki were, snatching up the scepter. Loki looked exhausted, dark circles under his eyes, and his hair a mess. Thor was trying to feed him, what looked like pop tarts.

“Thor, give him something else. That kind of sugar is gonna make him sick.” He looked a little disappointed, but nodded, and Lee ran back outside.

“Okay, tell me what to do,” he told Selvig.

“Lee, update?”

“Shit, sorry,” Lee sent out. “We can close the portal, with the scepter. What are you gonna do with the missile?”

“I have an idea, I’m going to send it through the portal, then you guys close it.”

“Sounds good, tell me when you’re out and we can close it.”

Tony sighed, and sounded resigned. “I won’t be coming out. I gotta make sure it’s over.”

“What?! No, Tony, you idiot, we can do this with you  _ alive.  _ You better get your ass back out of there!”

“I’ve intercepted the missile, heading to the hole now.”

“Tony-”

“Almost there. Tell Happy he can have my TV.”

“Tell him yourself you idiot-”

“I’m here--” The comm crackled out, and Lee watched as Tony flew into the hole, his chest wrenching in pain, his breaths coming out shallow.

“Tony, please come back, please-”

“Cl-se th- port--” crackled through the comms, faint. Lee felt tears trail down his face, but he positioned the scepter into the beam of energy, and pushed it, breaking the connection. The beam of energy stops, trailing the last bit up to the hole, and the hole begins to close.

Steve’s voice was soft. “Lee--”

“There! I see him!” Lee points to a tiny figure that fell out of the hole just before closing.

“Tony! Can you hear me? Tony!” Steve’s voice caused no reaction.

“He’s falling, someone needs to catch him,” Natasha’s voice rang in Lee’s ears.

Lee stood frozen, and he watched Tony’s body fall, and fall.

He wasn’t waking up.

“Come  _ on,  _ Tony, please,” Lee whispered to himself. “I can’t lose you too.”

A green blur flies through the air and snags him, landing unceremoniously into a pile of rubble. Lee breathed a sigh of relief. “Steve, get over there,” he ordered.

“Already en route.”

Lee couldn’t see what was going on. He turned to Thor, who was now standing next to him with a still-cuffed Loki.

“I think it’s over, Agent Leigh.”

“Why do you say that?”

“The Chitauri, they’ve stopped.” Lee looked around, down below, and saw that they all had collapsed, in crumpled piles of alien bodies all over the streets.

“Thank God it’s over. Steve,” he commed in, “Is Tony okay?”

“Tony’s great,” answered a roughened Tony, over the comm. “Tony just saved the world.”

“You  _ fucking _ idiot-”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. You love me.”

“I hate you. Go back to death.”

“Aww, you really do love me!”

  
  


०००

  
  
  


Weeks Later

 

“So, Lee, dearest,” Tony crooned. “Does this mean I get to hire you to be my new head of security?” Tony and Lee were lounging on his couch, watching television. Lee grabbed some popcorn out of the bowl in Tony’s lap, and stuffed it in his mouth, chewing slowly before swallowing it and answering.

“Isn’t that Happy’s job?”

“Yeah, so what? Co-Head of Security then.”

“Tony I’m not taking Happy’s job, you know how he is when you joke about that.”

“Fine, fine. Personal security.” Lee shook his head. “Tower security?” Another head shake. “Lee you’re killing me. I want to  _ hire  _ you. Let me please hire you for  _ something. _ ”

“I  _ just  _ retired from SHIELD officially, I don’t need a job right now.”

“How can you afford that?”

Lee rolled his eyes. “I’ve got sixty years of vacation time stacked up, man. I’m set for a while.”

Tony stretched, joints popping. “What about Steve, then? Is he gonna go on missions while you stay home like a cute housewife?”

“Ugh, Steve’s not even in SHIELD, Tones. He declined to sign on to the Avengers Initiative after that whole HYDRA fiasco.”

“Good. Means he can sign on under  _ my  _ Avengers.” Lee turned to him, confused.

“What.”

Tony turned to face Lee, both of them facing each other on the couch now, an excited glimmer in his eye. “I’ve been thinking, you know? We were a good team. This isn’t the Stark tower anymore, anyways, I’m moving the company to Malibu-”

“Wait, Tony. You think Bruce is gonna agree to this? Or Nat?”

“Sure, why not.”

“Do you want me to talk to Steve about it?”

“Sure, why not.”

“Tony."

“I mean, yeah, he’s gonna say yes if you ask. I’m planning on a floor for each member, I’ve already started building Bruce’s floor, to be safe for Hulk-outs, and we know you’ll always have your floor-” Lee closed his eyes and tuned out Tony’s chatter, processing the idea. They’d live in the tower? No government influence, only large-scale intervention, it sounded  _ perfect _ for the team. No Nick Fury, to manipulate everything. Maybe they could look for Chuckie, even if he’s long dead. “....Lee?”

Lee snapped out of his thoughts, blinking. “What?”

“Do you think Steve and I would get along better if we did this?”

Lee paused. “Possibly. I don’t think he hates you or anything, Tony.”

“Yes he does. He wanted to rip my face off before the invasion. You were there.”

“Tones, he’s not a hard guy to get along with. I think he was more pissed about Fury lying than anything.” Tony regarded this, then nodded.

“Then it’s settled. We can start the recruitment tomorrow.”

“Wait, Tony, I didn’t even agree-”

“Nope! We’re doing it! I’m calling Clint!” Lee groaned in frustration, while Tony left the room, cellphone already dialing. Lee turned to the abandoned bowl of popcorn and reached for it, and turned back to the TV.

  
  
  


०००

  
  


Steve was the first to say yes, because of course he was. Lee tried to downplay it, tried to say things that might turn off Steve, but he wasn’t buying it.

“We’d be on Stark’s payroll, and we’d be living in the Tower, if you agreed to it. Might get cramped?”

“That’s better than living off of you, Lee, I wouldn’t have to bunk with you anymore. You’d have me out of your way.”

“Stevie, I don’t  _ want _ you out of my way, if anything I welcome you to be  _ more  _ in my way-”

“Lee, you know this is a great opportunity. We’d be doing some  _ good _ , away from government influence.” It’s like Steve reads his mind sometimes. Lee sighed.

“Alright. I trust you. If you’re in, then so am I. We can move our stuff out of my apartment together, next weekend.”

Steve sounded confused. “I thought it was just me?”

“No, it’s for the whole team. That’s me too, dummy.”

“Right. Well, see you when you get home then, we can talk more about it.”

“Alright.” The line ended and Lee sighed. Tony walked back into the room, a huge smile on his face. “Steve’s in, so I guess I am too.”

“Awesome! Clint’s in too, and Nat’s still thinking about it. Bruce said no but I’m still making his room for when he says yes. I’m going to call Jane Foster, to recruit Thor, when he gets back from Asgard.” He blew out a breath in excitement. “It’s coming together! And you’re moving in next week?” Lee nodded. “Excellent. I actually have a choice for you, floor-wise.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you want your own floor, or do you want to bunk with Steve?” 

_ You’d have me out of your way. _ Lee felt a pang of sadness, about having Steve in his own floor, but he pushed past it. If he wanted his own space, then he can’t force Steve to room with him.

“Nah, our own floors is fine.”

“Great. I’m going down to the shop, you staying?”

“Steve’s waiting for me, I’m gonna head home.”

“See ya, Lulu.”

“Bye, asshole."

On the way home, Lee grabbed takeout, and got Steve’s favorite, Orange Chicken and noodles. Lee drove at a leisurely speed, taking his time. Steve was waiting for him, reading a book on the couch, the television muted. “Hey, Stevie.”

“Awesome, you brought dinner. Wasn’t sure if I should’ve made some or waited until you got home.” Lee set the bags on the counter, and Steve got up, rummaging through the bags and placing boxes of noodles on the counter. “Ooh! My favorite. You shouldn’t have, Lee.” He swooped down and kissed the top of Lee’s head, gently, and turned back to the takeout, before realizing what he’d done, freezing in place. “Uh…”

Lee didn’t say anything, just tried to ignore his reddening cheeks, and he grabbed a box. “Wanna watch a movie?”

“Uh, sure. What have you got in mind?” They settled on the couch, boxes and chopsticks in hand.

“I was thinking of maybe a David Lynch film, something that blows your mind,” Lee suggested.

“Who’s David Lynch?”

“Perfect, now we’re  _ definitely _ watching the movie I was thinking of.”

  
  
  


०००

  
  
  


Lee hauled his duffel bag onto the bed of his floor-er, well, floor  _ and a half, _ and looked around the room. Tony had left the room mostly unfurnished, save a bed and a dresser, thankfully. Lee’s furniture was arriving tonight, and his books had already been moved into the upper, half-loft.

The floor was huge, with a living room, a kitchenette, with a master bedroom and an attached bathroom, a main bathroom, and a guest room. It was about the same size as his apartment, just rearranged differently, and a view of New York dazzling through the open wall of windows. Another spiral staircase--possibly inspired by his apartment-- led to the half-loft, where boxes and boxes of Lee’s books had already been stacked neatly in. The loft was about half the size of the floor below, and Lee presumed that the rest of the floor was being used as a closet space.

All in all, the place was  _ amazing.  _ Lee wandered around, still taking it all in, when Jarvis’s voice rang out into the air. “Agent Leigh, Captain Rogers is requesting to visit your floor.”

“Let him in, thanks J.”

“You’re welcome.” The elevator doors slip open, and there stood Steve, wandering in with the same look of wonder at Lee’s floor.

“Wow, so you’re right under me! Awesome. Did Tony give you a loft?” Lee smiled warmly, and nodded. “He gave me this like, under-floor… loft thing.” So it wasn’t a closet space.

“Oh! Then you must be on the other side of my loft wall. We could have Tony add a door, or break the wall down, if you’d like.” Steve beamed.

“That’s a wonderful idea, that way we can visit each other without the elevator. He made it into an art studio, I guess someone told him?” Lee raised his hands in mock surrender.

“You got me. Jarvis, could you send Tony that request?”

“Already done, sir. Workers will be in to work on it tomorrow.”

“Awesome. So, what do we do now?” Lee looked at Steve expectantly.

“I guess.... We could do our usual routine. The floor under Thor’s is the gym, want to go?”

Lee grinned. “Let’s do it.” He walked back into his room, rummaging through his duffel bag until he found his sweats and running shoes, and headed into the elevator, followed by Steve.

They worked out for a couple hours, Steve working on the punching bags, Lee using various weights and other equipment, until Clint walked in through the elevator. “Guys, this place is awesome. We’ve gotta do something for Tony somehow, to thank him.”

Lee stopped using one of the machines, and took a break, drinking from a bottle of water. He finished, then wiped his brow with a towel. “He’s in his shop right now, I doubt he’ll be out for a few hours. Maybe we could have a movie night, drag him in it?”

“That’s a good idea. Let’s make a list of movies!”

“Not  _ Inland Empire,”  _ Steve muttered, and Lee chuckled at him.

“Yeah, let’s wait to add David Lynch films for sure,” Lee agreed. “Tony usually likes comedies or unconventional action films.”

“Speaking of,” Clint said, leaning against Lee’s exercise equipment. “How do you even  _ know _ Tony?”

Lee leaned back against the seat. “Easy. When Howard died, I was there. Stane was his godfather, but I was the weird uncle, I showed up to all his birthdays, Christmases, you name it. Howard didn’t treat him right. I was the positive force in his life, I encouraged him to go to MIT. He’s like my little baby brother.” Steve thought about that, and realized with an awkward blush that the dynamic between Lee and Tony wasn’t what he had thought. He was more like Chuckie to him, he mused, but more likely to get himself into trouble. “Actually, he kind of reminded me of Steve, before we got on the Serum.” Steve blinked at him, confused. Lee winked, and continued. “He’s brilliant, always getting into trouble. He went missing in Afghanistan and I nearly pulled all my hair out worrying over him.”

“Sounds like me alright,” Steve murmured quietly. Clint grinned, and stepped away, starting to head toward the elevators.

“Well, I’m going to go explore some more. Maybe I’ll find Dracula, hiding in a coffin.”

“You’ll probably find Nat.”

“Lee, don’t say that,” Steve scolded. “You  _ know _ she probably bugged all of us. She’ll probably take offense and kiss you in your sleep.”

“Please, if anything she’d kill Clint. I’m too sweet,” Lee cooed, batting his eyelashes comically. Steve laughed and turned back to his punching bag. “Say, why don’t you try something other than punching those bags?”

Steve paused. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you can punch just fine. What about your flexibility? Or your agility?” Steve grinned, already moving away from the bag.

“Alright, show me.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah, show me. Do some yoga, or something.”

Lee flushed red, scrambling to think of something. “Yeah, okay. Come here.” He led Steve to a clear area, and grabbed a yoga mat from a rack. Steve did the same, and set it down next to Lee’s. Lee sat down, and turned to Steve, motioning for him to do the same.

“Okay, we can start with something easy, to stretch some muscles out. This one’s called the Cobra.” He laid on his stomach, then stretched his torso upwards, and Steve followed suit. Lee watched him as his muscles ripples in his arms, his back a gentle curve.

They tried a few more, until Steve finally stopped, rolling over onto his back, breath coming out in short puffs. “Wow, that’s… harder than it looks. No wonder you do it, Lee,” he said. Lee left his position, the Dancer’s Pose, and put his leg down.

“It’s honestly relaxing, for me. Not many guys do it, but it’s just something I’d discovered helped. There’s also meditation, calming exercises to help with mental stress as well.” Steve nodded, still on the floor, so Lee extended a hand. He grabbed it and Lee lifted him up, and Steve bent down to pick up his mat, wincing.

“Sure does pack a punch on the back muscles, though.”

“Oh, you’ll get used to it. That just means they’re getting stretched.” Lee grinned up at Steve.

“You could always stretch them other ways,” A voice called out flirtatiously, and Lee and Steve turned to find Tony. “Alright love birds, shower time. We’ve got a movie marathon to watch.”

Steve didn’t comment, just grabbed his towel and walked over to the elevator. Lee did the same, and Tony grinned at him.

“You guys stink.”

“Thanks Tony, it blocks out the smell of asshole in the air. Guess you can’t escape from it though, sorry,” Lee quipped, showing Tony a mock sad face. Tony stuck his tongue out at him.

Steve rolled his eyes, and Tony turned to face him. “Alright Capsicle, you’re not the dad here. No rolling eyes in my vicinity, that’s Daddy Lee’s job.”

Lee scoffed. “Since when am I your dad?”

“Since right now. Welcome to the family Daddy.”

“I hate you.”   
“We both know that means you love me, come on,  _ Daddy-” _ Tony’s retort was cut off by Lee elbowing him right in the stomach, followed by a soft  _ oof. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not gonna lie I'm BAFFLED that I did two chapters in one sitting. Don't expect this often lol. Anyways, enjoy!

**Author's Note:**

> Hello guys! This is my first fic that I've been thinking about for a lomg time. Please send kudos and comment if you like it! I'll try to update at least once a week.


End file.
